"Long live Lord Larsa! Long live Lord Larsa! Long live Lord Larsa!"
It was an alliteration if I'd ever heard one. That's what the citizens were chanting as they fought back against the guards. They were all rushing toward them at once. The guards had weapons and armor, but the citizens had an advantage. They found strength in numbers. I imagined it must have been chaos on the lower level of Archades as well since they'd probably heard what had transpired in Tsenoble.
I looked away from the crowd and then back up to the balcony. Larsa was gone. And so was Metris.
"We must go," Esabel said before we hurried to the left. We held hands to make sure we didn't get separated.
There was a door somewhere. . . . "Aha!" I said as we found it right where Basch had told me it'd be. Since he'd spent time masquerading as my father to look after Larsa, he knew the layout of the palace well. And he'd made sure it was unlocked for us. We slipped inside unnoticed. I wondered where my uncle was at the moment. I had no doubt he'd met up with Vaan already and since the door had been unlocked I guessed they must surely be in the palace somewhere. Balthier was with Fran already. In fact, they had been outside somewhere while we'd confronted Metris. They were supposed to back us up and help us get out of there if things had gone wrong and we'd ended up in more danger than we could handle. We hadn't expected the citizens to save us from the guards the way they had.
Now, though, Balthier and Fran had probably made their way inside. As for Basch and Vaan, they were supposed to be taking care of any of the guards inside who had sworn their allegiance to Metris and making sure they would not be coming to help Metris when everything went down.
We quietly made our way down the corridor. When we made it to the corner, we peeked around it and saw something. There were guards knocked unconscious on the floor. Our friends had been here. We ran then and I pulled something from my bag. It was a map Basch had drawn of the inside of the palace for me. I held it against the wall and ran my finger across it. I found the balcony where Metris must have had Larsa. Now where would he take him?
"Where would he take him?" I asked Esabel as she looked over my shoulder.
She moved her finger upward until she reached the top of the palace. "There. She pointed at the very top of the palace. "His plans have backfired. Metris no longer stands a chance of gaining the majority's support through manipulative words. He has no intentions of backing down, however. Even without his manufacted nethicite, he will persist. He's waited too long for his chance to seize power. Metris will attempt to take the throne by force even if that means not having the advantage of the nethicite. That means he stills has plans to kill Larsa."
We started running again then and pulled our weapons out just in case we ran into anybody. My spear was as long as any other, but I'd managed to hide it under the coat I'd worn just for our mission in Archades just like Esabel had hidden her bow and quiver under hers. Thanks to my uncle, I had a specially made spear that could retract and then lock back out to full length when I needed it to. So our weapons had gone unnoticed this whole time.
An elevator. There was an elevator. We ran to it and pressed the button on the panel on the wall. Nothing happened.
"Metris," Esabel said then. "He intends on making this a more difficult task. We have legs, though. We haven't been stopped yet."
We sprinted up a flight of stairs nearby and then ran into something unexpected. There were guards rushing down that had apparently been missed. We immediately sprang into action. I took my spear and swept it under the feet of the guards who were closest. Esabel and I backed up against the railing so we wouldn't get hit as they rolled down the stairs and collided with the wall at the bottom. Esabel shot at the vulnerable spots in the armor of the ones higher up and they lost their footing, tumbling down the stairs as well.
We ran upward again and made it to the top of the stairs. I opened the door and looked out. The coast was clear. The guards were still knocked out. By the looks of it, somebody had met the unfriendly end of my uncle's hammer. We were almost to the next flight of stairs when it happened. My eyes. My sight. Something was wrong.
"Blind. Somebody used blind," I heard Esabel say from right next to me. I immediately used Esunaga and I returned to normal. I looked at at Esabel, though, and she looked pale. It was like her hp had just been. . .drained from her. I looked down at my Quasimodo boots and then it made sense. They must have inflicted sap upon her, too. She cured herself and pulled and knocked back an arrow. I thought about the arcane magick I had learned toward the end of my training and selected a spell. Dark. I used it on them and they didn't know what hit them. Esabel fired her arrows and we continued on to the next set of stairs.
When we made it to the next floor we found more guards that had been knocked unconscious. They were close to stirring, though. We had to hurry and get to Metris before he had the opportunity to call reinforcements. We tried the elevator on that floor, but there was no such luck. We took the stairs again. Back when I was just Lydian from Lowtown, I never would have been able to run up so many stairs. Now that I was the person I currently was, though, I could do it. I could. Esabel amazed me, though. She was a princess, but she'd always been so strong. I knew she'd been on her own for all that time in the Barheim Passage. Other than that, though, Esabel wasn't your typical princess.
Not only had she learned those skills she'd put to good use at the Cerobi Steppe that her parents wouldn't have approved of, but she'd insisted on receiving archery lessons at an early age. And then when she wasn't riding horses with her brother, she'd venture out into the wild areas near her home and practice her skills against fiends. Yet she was still such a poised lady. Esabel always had and always would be something else.
We reached the top of those stairs and came to the next floor. I pulled the map back out and looked at Esabel.
"One more flight to go," I told her as I put it back up.
As we ran up that last flight of stairs, my heart started beating faster with every step that I took. It wasn't because I was tired, which I was, no. It was because I had no idea what we'd find on the other side of that last door. We heard something as we made it to the last step. Voices. There were voices. We didn't wait to try and hear what they were saying. We opened the door and hurried out onto the roof.
It was high. It was very high. But I'd been higher. I held no fear for this place. My eyes swept across the roof of the palace and I saw what all the noise had been about. We were the last ones up there, apparently. Basch, Vaan, Balthier, and Fran were all fighting some ridiculously large beasts. There were two of them. They reminded me of the thing I'd killed at the Cerobi Steppe. Had Metris engineered these dangerous creatures just as he had the manufacted nethicite?
Larsa. Larsa! Where was Larsa?! I found him quickly. He was near the edge of the roof about five feet from Metris, whose arm was bleeding. I didn't have to wonder who I had to congratulate for that achievement. Larsa had his swords! Basch had made sure to bring them into Archades. And since he'd been posing as Gabranth, having so many weapons hadn't raised any suspicions. I was happy he'd done that. Larsa needed them. He'd also given Larsa back his bag.
Esabel and I approached just in time to hear them talking as Metris held his injured arm.
"Too long have I waited to ascend the throne! You know not what to do with such power. You advocate peace? Ha! Such folly is unbecoming of a person in your position! A fulsome mistake, indeed!" Metris shouted, the anger evident all over his face.
Larsa stood there calm and collected. He was a solid pillar on a precarious edge. "Such words bring me sadness for you cannot see the error of your ways. You are mistaken, uncle. No weakness is to be found in peace. It is quite the opposite, actually. Peace is a glue. It contains the ability to bond all of Ivalice together. Since standing united, all of Ivalice has prospered. You hold within your heart the dream of shattering this bond. Such a dark desire is reminiscent of my brother. . .I beseech you, uncle! We two keep the fire of House Solidor burning. Please, persist not to travel down this dark path. Should you continue, I will have no choice but to extinguish your flame."
"You possess no gumption for getting ahead, boy. Always it has been the way of House Solidor to expand upon that which we already have no matter the cost. Your father, for all his faults, knew that. Your brother knew that. Yet you know nothing! You speak of bonds and prospering. Ha! Such ties weigh Archadia down! They hold this empire back from what it should be. Bonds of peace and friendship are naught but a stone around your neck. Let me free you from such a burden!"
Larsa shook his head. "I pity you, uncle. Bonds and friendship are no such weight. They uplift me. That is where true power comes from. I draw it from these bonds. I draw it from these friendships." He looked over at us then. He looked at me and Esabel. He looked at Basch, Balthier, Fran, and Vaan. And then he looked back at Metris. "And because of these bonds, I do not stand alone."
Metris scoffed and looked positively disgusted. "I no longer have the time to entertain your childish dribble. The time is upon us for this to end. The sooner you die, the sooner I can attain that which is mine. You stand in my way no more!"
That was when Metris held up this massive chunk of manufacted nethicite. It was different from the others. It was red. It emitted a bright red light that consumed Metris. That wasn't the strangest part, though. The strangest part was what started to happen next. Metris started to. . .to morph into something else. His body stretched up. His body stretched out. His skin turned into these scales there were a sickening ash gray color. His hair seemed to fall out in clumps. Black claws replaced what used to be his fingernails. He turned into this. . .grotesque creature. There was fire spewing from his mouth. Larsa backed up to avoid being burnt.
"So this is what has become of you, Metris Moro Solidor? You've allowed yourself to fall prey to the trap of manufacted nethicite? You've given into this treachery? No longer can I allow you to call yourself a Solidor. No longer can I allow you to put Archadia at risk. It ends here."
Esabel and I stepped forward, each making our way to his side. I stood there on his right in the small space between him and the edge of the roof. This was it. This was what I'd done all of that training for. This was the time when Larsa needed his friends the most. And I was finally ready. I wouldn't fail him. I wouldn't. Not now, not ever.
Sometimes there are things that everything we do leads up to. It may be a long and winding path, but there is a destination at the end that we must reach. I realized that ever since the beginning, our journey had led up to this final confrontation. Right then, right there, our showdown against Metris was meant to be. And Esabel and I were meant to be right there by Larsa's side all along.
I went through everything I'd learned from Larsa and the things I'd picked up from Esabel. I thought about all the things my uncle had taught me. I thought about everything I knew that could possibly help him. It wasn't the time to stand there thinking, though. It was the time to act. Metris was the one who acted first. He lunged forward and tried to slice us with the claws on his left hand. We immediately dodged and moved to our left. At least that way we had put some distance between us and the edge of the roof.
Larsa saw my new spear and raised an eyebrow. I smiled and pointed toward Basch. Larsa raised the other eyebrow. We had a lot to talk about once this was all over.
"We can all catch up later, you two," Esabel said as she shot an arrow at Metris.
She was right. I quickly started casting a series of spells that would help us withstand our enemy's attacks. Larsa looked surprised. Yes, we definitely had a lot to talk about. Metris pulled an arrow out of his leg and rushed forward before we had time to react. He hit Esabel hard and she was pushed back a few feet. She hadn't been hurt too badly, though. Protect had made sure of that. She immediately cured herself. While she was doing that, though, I rushed toward Metris and thrust my elbow into his gut. He staggered back and I immediately dropped to the ground and swept my leg under his feet. He fell onto his back.
Metris didn't stay that way for long, though. He sprang back onto his feet and threw his head back. Smoke started to come out his mouth and I heard this sizzling sound.
"Lydian, take heed!" Larsa called. It was the first time I'd heard him say my name since the night he'd been forced back to Archades. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed hearing him say it. Even now, in the middle of this fight, I felt the same feeling I'd always felt from hearing him say it. I wasn't distracted by those feelings, though. My head was in this battle. That was where Larsa needed it to be. Metris shot flames at me from his mouth.
I back-flipped out of the way and then hurried back toward Larsa and Esabel. We countered with Blizzaga. Metris shouted in agony and rage. Larsa then hurried forward with his swords and slashed at the arm he'd weakened before we even got on the roof. Metris shouted more. Esabel quickly pulled out some icecloud arrows and fired them at him. She'd acquired those back when we were traveling through the Cerobi Steppe and this was my first time seeing her use them. Metris wasn't too fond of those, but I sure was!
It continued on like that for a while. Metris would charge at us with one attack or another or else he'd try to incinerate us. Meanwhile, we'd do our best to dodge, retaliate, and use Blizzaga. Whenever we couldn't avoid being hit, we'd quickly heal ourselves and each other. When the protective spells I'd put in place wore off, I replenished them.
Larsa kept directing his attention to that arm he'd injured. It was a weak point he'd created. It was the most vulnerable spot on Metris at the moment. Eventually, Metris could no longer use it altogether. We were wearing him down. Larsa had already made a weak point. What could I do to further weaken Metris? What could I do to incapacitate him?
'Jab,' I thought, remembering Larsa's instructions from way back when I was first learning to use a spear. Not only could my new spear retract, but it could also extend. I extended it far enough to reach Metris and then I acted as quickly as I could. I jabbed Metris in the eye before pulling my spear right back out. I did not even want to think about what I would have to be cleaning off of it later as I took it back to its normal length.
Metris howled in pain, holding his eye and staggering about. He was howling so loudly that it hurt my ears and I had to resist the urge to drop my spear and put my hands over them. He wasn't done yet, though. He was angry and he was ready to strike back. Metris concentrated the flames away from his throat and the next thing we knew, they were engulfing his hand, surrounding his claws. He brought his hand forward faster than we'd thought possible. His vision was off, though, thanks to my assault on his eye. He was aiming for me, but he got Esabel instead. She tried to move out the way, but his flaming claws got her leg. She fall to the ground and gave a pained cry.
"Es!" I yelled, hurrying toward her. Before I could get to her, though, Fran had appeared. It wasn't just Fran, though. Balthier, Basch, and Vaan all hurried over and stared down Metris. Apparently they'd finished off those monsters they'd been fighting. And considering how strong they all were and how they'd used the mist attacks Basch hadn't quite had time to teach me, those monsters must have been extremely powerful. As far as Metris went, they were probably his pride and joys of manufacted nethicite experiments.
Fran healed Esabel and got her back on her feet. We all stood there with Larsa. All of his friends stood with him, a united front against Metris. And then we attacked. We attacked with all we had. We attacked for all we were worth. And Metris howled in pain time and time again. And then he started to try to retreat. He backed up more and more until there was nowhere else to go. He backed up until he was right at the edge of the roof.
And then. . .he was gone. Metris fell off the roof! We all ran over to the edge and looked over. It was almost like slow motion as Metris hurtled toward the ground. He was falling, falling, falling until. . .he hit the bottom. He'd already been weakened considerably and now he'd fallen from the very top of the Imperial palace of Archades. That was it. Metris Moro Solidor was dead.
