CODENAME: LIGHTNING
We're here, at the break in the city's wall. Beyond are buildings crumbling beneath the snow. At the far end of town is the remnant of the castle's keep, and the spire which rises from it. There are no bodies littering the ground. There are no signs of life here, just floating pieces of Crystal in the air as we walk.
"You wanted to hear about motives?" Alfador asks, "You soon will. Beyond this point I go not. Good luck, and please, make this an interesting moment. I have been enjoying too much for you to fail now."
We step into the city as Alfador steps back, and at once the spire moves. The top of it is no spire at all! It spreads two massive wings, and roars. The pale light of this faded world catches itself upon the dragon, and reveals it's hide to be made of Crystal. Shinryuu, the Divine Dragon, awaits. As we approach, He speaks.
Welcome, Child of Destruction, Etrosian Princess and Orsteddian Queen. Long have I awaited this day. Long have I prepared for this very moment. Enter, and approach. There is much you must learn.
Shinryuu's voice differs from that of other Gods. It is not booming, nor does it penetrate one completely. It is . . . sad, almost like something is missing within Him now. We advance as Shinryuu begins His speech.
You have come here to awaken Omega, my foe from ages now since forgotten. Omega, which I believe I was made to destroy. You hold in your hand a fragment of the beast known as The Omega Weapon. You have seen its power, and used it on occasion. But do you understand yet the nature of the force you seek?
We pass through the emptied streets, and as we do, shadows appear around us. People, at least, I think they once were. They move in repetitive motions, incapable of breaking their own cycles.
Omega is Destruction. Omega is The Void. It is the ending to all things. This is why it can slay even Gods, and yes, even The God of The Gods of The Gods. It is a force I have long tried to comprehend, and it is a task which I could never hope to succeed at: To destroy Destruction itself. Only then could Heaven last forever.
The shadow-people make no noises as we pass them. They take no heed of us. Their arms and legs move constantly, even when they stand in place. Little by little we perceive faces on them, but no eyes.
You cannot destroy a soul. It is impossible. Even within The Void, something survives. For though you reduce all things to Zero, Zero is still bound to become One, and One Two, and Two Ten. What you see here then you might call . . . Halves. They are remnants of the souls of this world. I am no longer certain if I am their captor, or if they are mine.
Eventually, the streets end, and the keep lies before us. Its gates have long since been torn down, and we stride over them, entering the forgotten tomb. Within the shadow people are dancing with one another, and some seem to be ill from the spinning.
Long, so long . . . so long have I been here. I have guided Heaven through end and end again. All of it, I would have you believe, has been done to end Omega, and make real Eternity. But that would be a lie. It was not for so noble a reason that I fooled Cid Lufaine and initiated the Endless Cycle of War. It was not to stop Chaos' Eternal Paradox that I doomed this world to destruction. No, no, it was not so noble . . .
We climb the castle stairs, making our way toward the tower. As we do, we find some of the shadow folk fighting amongst themselves. They bleed shadowy, fake blood, and fall to the ground, then get up and fight again.
The truth is . . . I was made alone. And I grew bored. So bored. Nothing, I had nothing to do! And your wars, and your sufferings, and your battles, all of them have proven . . . entertaining to me. Your hatred, your love, your struggles to come this far. The anger, the tears, the passion. All of existence has been nothing more than a clever play for my entertainment!
These words freeze us in our tracks. Could that be true? Could everything just be some show for The Gods' enjoyment? Alfador suggested as much, but when confronted so directly with the thought, it seems . . . impossible to me. Can it be? Can it really be that our lives, and then our afterlives, have been nothing more than a clever series of games for someone's entertainment?
All things must end. All things must inevitably return to The Void. All things will be consumed. All things will be Destroyed. I wanted to be . . . truly Eternal. And I had found a way to do it. I had found a system to make me live forever, even without destroying Destruction. Until you came along and KILLED him.
We push past the fear, swallowing it down. As we walk through the shadowy monsters fighting one another, we feel something strange and cold inside ourselves. It's like being doused with cold water, except from within. There's something very, very wrong about this.
Even now, Chaos is beginning to die. He will not win His war. He will not win OUR war. Because you killed Him. Why did you do this? I am not sure. You have come and ruined the best plans I have ever made. Why? What motivates you? Can you not see how well you've played into their hands?
We reach the stairs to the tower and begin ascending. It is a long, long way up, and there are more of these things as we ascend.
Omega. I tried to destroy it, but did not succeed. I managed, however, to break it into pieces. These I scattered across The Heavens. Should you desire to rebuild Omega, you must give it back the pieces for which it even now is seeking.
We run as Shinryuu begins to fire blast after blast of energy through the tower, causing it to shake. How we're going to make it out of this alive is beyond me.
I have tried to escape from this place. Time and again I have managed to make my way into Time, only to be stopped short by some group of Heroes or another. Always it is the same thing: Heroes. The pathetic pawns of Cosmos and ridiculous remnants of Cid Lufaine's project. And, as is your case, the dream of one Dorgann Klauser coming true in a way he had never considered . . .
At last we break through to the roof, and as we do, we stop in amazement. Shinryuu is much, much larger than we had ever imagined. He is perched upon the side of the tower, eying us lazily. He does not seem at all concerned by our presence. At last He provides the information we have been waiting to hear:
Omega's parts are these: The Weapon, The Armor, The Man, and The Woman. These things combined will call forth Omega's power, and give you the strength to destroy Cid Lufaine. This is, I believe, your goal?
"We only seek to persuade Him," Arazlam says.
I know full well what YOU seek, Student. I also know what The Knight and The Sorceress seek. I even am aware what drives the Swordsman. But I wish to know what The Princess seeks. I am already informed as to YOUR wishes. I desire only to know HERS.
"Wait, you know-?" Arazlam and Cuore ask at once.
I will not divulge these things here. I am not concerned by your motivations. I am concerned by hers.
And so, at last, all eyes turn toward me. What do I want? I thought I knew once, but now, I'm not so sure. It seems so . . . vague to me now. But again I push away all doubts and make my choice.
"No mercy. Not for You. Not for Him. If Cid Lufaine stands in my way- no, WHEN He stands in my way, I will destroy Him."
Then why have you come here to slay me? With whom do you ally, if you would destroy both I and He?
"I owe allegiance to no one! I do this as a favor to a friend."
And that friend would be whom?
"The Scholar."
I see. Very well then. But do not believe I will offer Cid Lufaine His freedom from me so simply. No, if you would take on The High One, you will first fight me. Slay me, then, Orsteddian Queen, and free me from Eternity's binding hold!
"As you wish," I say, raising my blade. Shinryuu rises into the air, wings fanning the grey skies. The dim light shimmers on His crystal body. He roars in what I assume must be fury, then falls backwards from the tower. A moment later He's in the air, swooping this way and that, and as He passes us, He fires a shot that knocks the tower down.
"Dammit!" Benjamin shouts as we begin to fall, "Why can't these things ever die quietly?"
"That wouldn't make for a very good boss fight now, would it?" Gilgamesh asks.
The tower begins to fall and Cuore cushions us with float magic as Arazlam shields us with a protect spell. When we touch down on the ground, the toppling tower shatters around us and Shinryuu roars again. We have only a moment to catch our breath before He fires and we're forced to jump away.
Child of The Ending, haven't you any idea? Were you not forewarned that you are the lone pawn in a many-handed game of Chess? And yet still you play your part perfectly! How humorous! If you will be a puppet, then come at me!
Shinryuu launches another volley in my direction, and as He does so, Arazlam hits him from the side with a Harm spell. Shinryuu doesn't miss a beat. Even as He charges me He swerves and turns in Arazlam's direction. Shinryuu fires at Arazlam, only to be struck by a Flare-cast from Cuore.
Now Benjamin's trying to hit Him with his sword, but Shinryuu isn't coming down far enough for that. The Lord Dragon stops a moment, then folds His wings about Himself as He plummets toward us.
"Chaotic Deluge!" Gilgamesh shouts, "Get the Hell out of His way Benjamin!"
Benjamin has just enough time to roll to the side as Shinryuu begins to spin rapidly, and flies past him as a crystal bullet, causing massive explosions in His wake. The Lord Dragon flies again into the sky after the attack, and turns to mock us.
You could have escaped your destiny. You could have bested fate and been made a free spirit, but instead you choose to obey the Kings! How fickle you are! You say you would fight Cid Lufaine to free yourself, I say you do this because it seems the easiest to you! You cannot cope, cannot adapt, so when Heaven changed, you decided that you would destroy it!
The shadow folk begin to surge from the city toward us. As they do, their bodies begin to be covered in crystal. The crystal then slowly, but surely, takes the shape of persons all too familiar.
"Manikins!" I shout to Gilgamesh as the monsters make their way.
Heartless, I give them hearts. Having no bodies, I give them flesh. Unversed in reality, I raise them up. These beings are the end result of The Genome Project. Many a being has been produced without soul, but these fragments of souls and memories I have made greater still. Coated in crystal, they exist only to fight. They serve Chaos only because I have supplied Him with them. Am I their captor, or are they mine?
There must be thousands of them already, and as we strike at them, they simply divide into more. This isn't good. This isn't good at all. We can't keep fighting Him like this.
Surrender! You are not worthy of this honor. You do not deserve a chance at Omega's power. I have overestimated you for far too long. Now, farewell!
Shinryuu begins to glow, then dive attacks us again. He repeats this tactic with a speed and ferocity that make it almost impossible to see Him. And as He has us dodging Him constantly, more and more Manikins arrive to attack us.
"Lightning!" Gilgamesh shouts, "Aim for His weak spot and deal massive damage!"
"What?"
"See how not all of Him is made from Crystal? See how that beautiful purple hair of His billows in the wind? Strike Him there, and have done!"
Looking around myself as Shinryuu bombs again and again and again and the Manikins swarm around us, and this once dead landscape is crawling with a type of parody of life like some uncanny valley, and I begin to feel flustered. I don't know what to do! How can I pull this off? What does Gilgamesh expect from me? Shinryuu's up there, and I'm down here!
"Help me!" I cry in a moment of weakness.
NO. Shinryuu booms, stopping His attack suddenly. This you will do on your own. There will be no help from ones who circumvent the very rules I have lain. He turns His massive head and fires a geyser of energy at Gilgamesh. We all see it coming, but there's nothing to be done. Gilgamesh tries to dodge, but it's too late. The blast knocks him to the side, leaving him on the ground, dead or unconscious, I cannot say.
I WEARY OF THIS! If you will not end my suffering here in this eternal prison, you are not worthy of facing Cid Lufaine! You have slain me already, give me an honorable death! But if you refuse, you are indeed nothing more than a pawn who got lucky.
"I'm not your pawn!" I roar to the Heavenly Snake. "I'm no slave of the Gods. I am my own, and no one else's! So shut the Hell up about Etrosian Princesses and Orsteddian Queens and Kings and Pawns and Children of this or that and who the Hell cares anyway? I won't be your play thing, nor Cid's, nor Cosmos'! I will bring you all down!"
Hah! Big words for one whose power is so small. You are not the Arbiter of Time, nor the Chrono Trigger. This is not your story. Your anger comes from my harming the man for whom you harbor hidden hopes. That is all!
"I don't give a damn what you think! If I'm so small, why don't you come down and fight me on my own terms, instead of boasting of your own might, while you fly about up there, you coward!"
Many things I am, but a being of honor I am not. If you would goad me, you will not succeed. Have I not said? All I have done has been for my own entertainment. Like an adult playing a child, I provide you only with the means of believing you stand a chance, to lessen the blow when I crush you beneath my heel.
"Big words for one whose will is so small! Did you manipulate The Gods all these ages for your own amusement, or do you but claim you did to enlarge your own ego? I have no proof of your power but your words. Sounds to me like you're just a big, shiny, feathered serpent."
Again, I will not be fooled into fighting you so.
"Do you think that's what this is about? I don't mean to trick you, you slimy freak, I want to FIGHT you. Isn't that what your whole plan is anyway?"
As you wish, then.
Shinryuu begins to dive directly at me again, and I prepare myself for what must come next. The timing has to be precise to the exact second, or this will go very painfully. As The Lord Dragon draws nearer, I crouch down. Just instants before He approaches He opens His mouth to breath more of that maddening energy at me. That's when I jump.
Somersaulting through the air, I land on the nape of His neck. Shinryuu, finding my holding to His hair, freaks out in the most delightful of ways. He flies higher and higher and higher, swerving and flipping in an attempt to throw me off.
I, of course, am not about to let that happen. To The Lord Dragon's horror, I begin to ascend His neck toward His skull, hugging the neck and gripping the hair as I go. Omega remains firmly in one hand, making this that much harder to do.
Shinryuu begins to fly in a circle rapidly, almost as though He intends to bite me off of His own neck. The motion is sickening, but I try and focus all my thought to moving up the neck. Hold tight. Shove forward. Hold tight. Shove forward. At last I reach the crown of The God of The Gods of Dragon-Gods. I hold on as best I can to one of the horns on His head as I raise Omega.
"Any last words, Shinryuu?" I ask.
Thank you, He responds as Omega pierces His skull and drives down through His brain. Shinryuu's back arches, and He lets out one last roar as we plummet back down to the ground. We land with a bone-crunching THWACK! And my body is thrown from Shinryuu's.
When I get a hold of myself again, I see something I had not expected. The Manikins are charging Shinryuu, swarming over His body, and literally tearing Him to pieces. The Lord Dragon raises Himself for but a moment, then falls beneath them again.
Are you your own woman? Are any of your souls your own? What is freedom, and how is it earned? Are you so determined to have it that you will slay even Cid Lufaine, who sustains reality with His will?
What is a soul? Where does it come from? Who created all of this? Cid and I were not the makers, but rather, we were the shapers of this place. Souls were not ours to make, only to craft. But I grew tired of the chains of my tasks: to guard reality and slay Omega. So when I was presented with Cid Lufaine, I found a way to dominate, and not simply watch. I was bored, and you provided entertainment to me.
Was it wrong for me to play games? You were all so far below me, I couldn't consider you more than toys. But now? What are you? Who are you? How much will you pay to prove these things? How far will you go to break free from the cords which shackle you? And when do you lose the ability to distinguish what binds, and what connects, and what holds in place?
This Crystal World will die with me. When we are gone, you will be released. And so will end an era of Heaven which has lasted since before the stars were born. When I am gone from Heaven, Omega's seal will be released, and it can be reunited.
Without me, the game will change. There will be no resetting to the way things were. There will be no more "try, try again". There will be only errors. After the 14th Cycle, there will be no more Dissidiae. You, the one they call Lightning, you this day have initiated the end-game.
Now go, child, and let me be. I have grown bored of this game as well. The grand finale awaits you! Do not linger on that which is past, but look ahead, to the future that you will fight, and always ask yourself: Is it worth the price you're paying?