Hm. Slighter longer time-frame then usual between this update and the last.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"Ah… nice to have some semblance of safety again, isn't it?" Galuf breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that they were back at Order's Sanctuary. The water, just barely reaching the mid point of his toes, offered a psychological relief for his tired mind, which had been given too many things to worry and stress about lately.
"Whatever. I say the sooner we're fighting Chaos' punks some more, the sooner we get all this over with." Jecht grunted his words out, the shallow water slightly irritating his traveled dry feet, "Man, this water can get a bit annoying…"
"Never mind, Jecht." Galuf shook his head, the only real similarity between him and the ace seemed to be the fact that they were aged warriors. "Besides, it seems we have a bit of a reunion on hand."
Galuf pointed forward, right by Cosmos' throne stood two familiar sights. Laguna and Shantotto were present, looking like they were talking about something. Galuf sped his movements up to reach them faster, Jecht, in contrast, continued at his current pace. The two in the distance were keeping their backs to the two that were approaching them, it took a few minutes before Galuf was close enough to yell at them.
"Hey!" Galuf yelled across the distance, generating a small jump from both of the warriors in front of him, they both turned around instantly, looking more like they were ready for battle, but their expressions and body language softened when they saw that it was allies who were approaching them.
"Where have you been?" Laguna spoke with exaggerated exhaustion, "Do you have any idea how much has happened without you around?"
"We've had are fair share of thugs coming after us with swords." Shantotto smiled, "Though most of them just left me bored…"
Galuf winced at Shantotto's dialogue gimmick, but didn't slow his movements. Right now, the chance to make a more solid team appealed to him, he needed to go back and remember whose idea it was to split up in the first place…
"I imagine you're not the only one with stories to tell." Galuf smiled as the distance closed, "We've been through a fair bit ourselves, if only you saw all the explosions and destruction that the Chaos Warriors pull regularly.
"Ah…" Laguna paused for a moment, turning away, "We… lost someone thanks to their explosions and destruction…"
Galuf tilted his head in curiosity at Laguna's statement, feeling a ting of confusion over why his choice of words seemed to have pained him. Then he noticed, Richard wasn't anywhere in sight.
"Hold on." Jecht moved past Galuf, promptly jamming his sword into the ground and crossing his arms, "Laguna, didn't you go with Sephiroth? Where's Richard? He was with you, right?" He placed his gaze on the small Tarutaru.
"Where Sephiroth is, I haven't known ever since we encountered Gabranth at some strange… tech tunnel." Laguna paused for a moment, thinking back, it was nearly the beginning of the whole war. "As for Richard…"
"Richard died." Shantotto cut in, and instantly silenced Jecht and Galuf with her two words, "That Emperor guy sent Absolute Virtue after him, there wasn't even a slight chance to say bye."
Galuf sat mute for a moment, his good cheer about the reunion had apparently only been a temporary respite. Still, the more allies they had, the less likely it was that the Chaos Warriors could kill them with…
Something occurred to him.
"What's an "Absolute Virtue"?"
"By Shantotto's assessment, it's the ultimate unkillable monster." Laguna turned his gaze to the side, toward the back, "I thought Richard was doing some decent damage to the monster, but then it healed itself and slaughtered him with Meteor."
Galuf again fell silent, not wanting to continue the conversation in that direction, he decided to try and chance it. "I'm sorry for what happened, but, did you manage to kill any of the Chaos Warriors?"
"Oh, uh, both Adel and that white-skinned girl that Kefka always had with her are gone now." Laguna's statement gave Galuf reason to have a smirk form on the edge of his lips… but it was crushed by Laguna's next statement.
"But… that Emperor guy, he found a replacement for Adel, so in that sense they've really only lost one." Laguna returned his gaze to the forefront, taking some small solace in the fact that Adel was gone.
As the four continued their conversation, and began recapping everything that they had gone through, they remained ignorant to a figure standing in the far distance. A rocky area was present beyond the edge of the water that comprised Order's Sanctuary, one figure, who seemed to blend in with the rocks, stood quietly, watching them from a distance.
Judge Gabranth was on what could have been his final assignment in this war, for right now he was just monitoring the four warriors, according to the Emperor, Exdeath was about to try and attack them. He was doubtful of the chances of him to take on all four by himself, even with the strength of that "Void" he frequently spoke of, though Gabranth was strictly told not to interfere, he was to report the outcome of the fight, and then attack Shantotto after anyone who survived Exdeath's assault left. He was unsure how Mateus knew that the other three would leave her by herself but, there was much about the man he was unsure of.
Gabranth continued to stand and watch, waiting for a battle to commence, a seed of dread began to sprout in his heart, the possibility of having to hide his presence and tail them for a excessive amount of time before Exdeath's attack… it brought no amusement for him. He considered it possible that he might have been sent out just so he could be out of the way of whatever Mateus and Ultimecia were planning…
His train of thought was derailed all of a sudden, when he saw a heavily built armored figure step out into sight, though the four Cosmos warriors remained oblivious to his presence. Gazing upon him, Gabranth noticed that Exdeath had clearly been injured by something, but it didn't look like an attack from Galuf or Jecht… his curiosity was piqued, but he remained distant from the scene.
Exdeath stopped his movements suddenly, and reared his left arm back, one look at his body language told Gabranth that he was heavily agitated at the moment. He seemed to have no interest in declaring his presence for combat this time, as the white energy phased into existence and began lacing itself around his hand, forming into a single glob of energy that he held firmly in his fingers.
He stood for a moment, the energy continuing to surge and shimmer, before he thrust his arm forward, unleashing the blast. It sailed with remarkable speed, the speed seemed to further confirm, in Gabranth's eyes, that Jecht and Galuf had wounded his pride in some way.
The blast continued to move toward the four warriors… until Shantotto spotted it. Within a second of recognizing the attack, she had quickly erected a Wall behind the backs of Galuf and Jecht, the white mass of energy collided with the defense structure and dispersed upon it.
Jecht, Galuf, and Laguna all focused their attention on the Wall, and the person beyond it, Exdeath stood still for a moment, before disappearing in a flash of white light. He reappeared right in front of the four warriors, on their side of the Wall spell.
Galuf's first reaction was to try and attack, he reached toward his waist, but his hand instead wrapped itself around an empty holster, patting the general area for a moment, Galuf looked down to find that his sword was missing. He inwardly groaned as he recalled that his sword was destroyed in his last encounter with Exdeath, he looked back up just in time to see Jecht attempt to attack Exdeath.
Exdeath raised his sword and met Jecht's attack head on, the two attacks strained against each other for a moment, but Exdeath wasn't forced back in the slightest. After a moment, Exdeath moved his sword-arm forward, forcing Jecht to jump back unless he wanted the knightly figure's sword to cleave through his body.
Laguna opened with a series of gunfire, only for Exdeath to grab the corner of his cape and put it between him and Laguna. The components of the cape made it impossible for the bullets to pierce, instead bouncing rather ineffectively off of the fabric, Shantotto attempted to attack now, firing a blast of Flare, yet Exdeath released his grip on his sword, letting it flow away from him, and then pointed a finger at Shantotto's attack.
At once a small portal to the Void appeared, sucking the Flare in before the portal quickly shrunk to nothing. Then, feeling rather aggravated by Laguna's gunfire, he threw his cape to the side and fired a blue blast of Holy out of his hand. The divine power flew towards Laguna, but he quickly jumped to the side, though he lost his aim on Exdeath as he dodged the attack.
Exdeath recalled his sword to his right hand, grasping it firmly with both hands, black energy was born around him, concentrating into an orb that surrounded him, before suddenly expanding and exploding, sending the four warriors off into the distance across from him.
The four tumbled into the air, until they eventually landed and skidded upon the ground, eventually crashing straight into the edge of Order's Sanctuary.
As the four began to stand up, Exdeath brought his left hand up, concentrating a white energy into it, but he didn't summon a single orb of energy this time, instead he focused the energy until there was a small ball of energy on the end of all five of his fingers.
Keeping the hand pointed toward the warriors, through each blast, remaining on the tip of each finger, bolts of electricity surged out and struck upon each warrior as they had just gotten back on their feet. They all collapsed onto their knees from the attack, even as the electricity continued to surge through them, through it all, Exdeath's laughter could be heard.
"I hope you appreciate this, Galuf, and you as well Jecht." Exdeath paced forward, keeping his left hand up as electricity continued to bolt from the orbs on the end of each of the hand's fingers. "You invited this all upon yourself, so now you reap the benefits of angering me."
Exdeath stopped his movements twenty feet away from the warriors, "Fear not, this will be over soon. Except for you, Galuf." Exdeath laughed again, "For your actions against me, you shall bear witness to the suffering and death of your allies."
The words of the knightly Exdeath caused a sudden twitch in Galuf's body before it went still, no longer taken to spasms from the electricity going through his body, with a loud groan, he managed to force himself to stand up, looking straight at Exdeath.
Even with the electricity paralyzing his body, he began to force himself to move forward, despite his body's protests he began moving toward Exdeath, even without his weapon.
Exdeath quickly recognized Galuf's defiance, and with a miniscule movement of his fingers he heightened the electricity's power. Yet it only stunned Galuf for a moment, before he continued his march toward Exdeath.
Unamused, Exdeath threw his right arm to the side and his sword flew out of his grip, spinning wildly to the side, before arcing to the fore, heading straight for Galuf.
Galuf didn't even flinch as the weapon approached, simply steeling his body…
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