Nothing new on the 012 front, just two english screenshots.
So, with nothing else to say, I'll come out and say the following: Seifer and Vivi, that's my first and last character request for 012.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"You were a mere annoyance before, what hope could you have against me now?" Mateus chuckled as Jecht was the first to charge at him, but his attack was stopped by a Burst spell landing right in front of him.
Jecht stopped and backed away, turning around and shooting a confused look at Shantotto.
"As delicious as it would be to see you accuse her of treachery, it was not that minuscule gnat who cast Burst." Mateus chuckled through his demonic visage, "Or rather, it was her, but not the same one you call an ally."
Mateus stood there for a moment, his inhuman face hiding his smile, "Ah, you are obviously confused, allow me to show you the army I found sealed away in hell."
The Emperor took a step to the left, allowing four figures to appear from behind him. To the surprise of the Cosmos Warriors, especially Shantotto, there was a Tarutaru mage by the Emperor, but it's apperance was almost completely identical to Shantotto. Almost.
Her… its skin, was made of crystal, the clothes matched Shantotto's, but they were a mere pattern of the crystal.
The other three crystal warriors had the apperance of Richard, Adel, and Sephiroth, similarly with the unnatural crystal appearance.
"Allow me to introduce the Lady of Antiquity, the Imaginary Champion, the Imitation Dragon, and the Transient Ruler." Mateus turned his gaze back to the Cosmos Warriors, "This is only the beginning of my army, I have thousands waiting for next time."
"Next time? We're beating you today!" Laguna pointed his gun forward and unleashed a series of bullets at the Emperor, but the Transient Ruler blocked it with its unstable Sorceress Power.
"Beat me?" Mateus cocked his head to the side, "And what would that accomplish, dear president?"
Laguna wasn't phased by Mateus' awareness of his position in Esthar, instead he continued to point his gun at the crystal copy of Adel. "You'd be out of the way, and we'll be able to head for Chaos and end this war once and for all."
"End? Once and for…ah ha… ha-ha-ha-ha!" Mateus surrendered to laughter, "So you have not suspected anything yet?" Mateus continued to laugh.
"So you never questioned it? You did not ask the question of "why" at any point?"
"What are you talking about? And why should we lsiten to the words of a lout?" Shantotto eyed the Emperor, but kept a healthy amount of attention to the crystal warriors that were defending him as well.
"Out of all the Cosmos Warriors, at least you should have noticed that something was wrong, my dear Windrustian." Mateus turned his attention to Shantotto briefly, "Did you never question why the need for the warriors? Why it had to be us, not them, who are fighting?"
The expression of the three Warriors didn't change at all, they were defiantly loyal to Cosmos about this war. Admirable… but in Mateus' eyes: misplaced.
"The answer is simple. Because it was what they were told to do. They are not the masters of their own fate, nor do they decide their decisions themselves." Mateus took a step forward, "They have no true authority, they are no less a pawn then we are, we're being manipulated, directed, all to reach a certain goal."
"I will admit, the goal itself I have yet to uncover, but the truth is evident of your devotion to such a useless forgery." Mateus shook his head, the three Warrior's expressions only slightly flickered, of course they wouldn't believe him on the spot… rather, it was more likely that they would deny it to the bitter end.
"Well investigated, Mateus." A voice came from behind the Cosmos Warriors, behind… and above. All present turned their gaze up to the cliff above them, there stood the Cornelian knight.
"We are all just pawns on the board. His board…" Garland paused for a moment and then jumped over the cliff edge, landing evenly behind the Cosmos Warriors. "We are slaved to this cycle of conflict… so though we die again and again, still we live forever."
Mateus' impulse to laugh died away, somewhat aggravated by his own lack of understand of who the man who oversaw the board was. He was acutely aware of Shinryu, of course.
"Warriors of Cosmos… this is not the first or the only war, nor is it the first one's you have participated in." Garland made a point of gesturing toward Shantotto in particular, "Nor have you always been on the side of Cosmos, the foul mage was counted among my allies at one time."
"No, that can't be right! I fight for Cosmos' light!"
"Yeah, there's no way what you're saying is true." Jecht added, "And we don't need to know what started the war to fight you."
"That's right. You don't." Garland brought his sword forward, hunching into his battle stance, "We don't need a reason to fight, we fight for the simple pleasure in it."
Shantotto paused to determine their situation, the Emperor on one side, and she could easily see she was stronger then he had ever been before. On the other side was Garland, easily ranking among the strongest enemies she had ever encountered, and she and her allies were caught in the middle of the two warriors. There was also the Emperor's strange crystal warriors, but they were likely a triviality at best in this battle.
"What do you think our odds are?" Laguna shifted his eyes from Mateus to Garland, and then back again. "These guys are Chaos' elite."
"Who cares about our odds?" Jecht tightened his grip around his sword, "Getting backed in a corner just excites an ace."
Kefka found himself in Order's Sanctuary. The shallow water lapped peacefully at his feet, to his irritation. He might have done something to deal with the water, but he felt little interest in doing it if the water couldn't actually feel pain. Furthermore, he saw something up ahead that caught his interest.
Strands of light collected on the throne in the distance, and with a flash, there sat Cosmos.
"Kefka." Her voice did not reveal anything about what she was feeling, merely acknowledging the Chaos Warrior that had approached her. "You wish to end this war?"
"Oh, like I really care." Kefka raised himself up in the air, "But… you have something I would want."
"Something you would want?"
Kefka felt his power surge through him, "I took my power from three oh so helpful little divinities, I'd like to see what you would offer me."
Concentrating his power on his arm, he cast Trine, generating three triangle fonts of power, converging on the goddess. As they met each other, an explosion was triggered, hiding Cosmos behind the flames.
"What a fantastic barbecue!" Kefka laughed as the flames died away and were replaced by smoke. His laughter ended as the smoke was dispersed by a flash of light. There stood Cosmos, skin uncooked, and her clothes without the slightest hint of a burn.
"I don't fight often, but be aware that I am Chaos' equal." Cosmos closed her eyes and bowed her head, then drifting up into the air, "I won't let you entertain your wicked pleasures with me."
"Oh… miss defiant goddess…" Kefka shook his head as his grin came back, "Perhaps you aren't quite aware of my… magnificent power!"
"The end draws near… and only meaningless awaits us." Kefka's grin grew wider as he raised himself higher into the air, becoming level with Cosmos, "We might as well enjoy this lot."
Kefka made his move, firing a blast of erratic Firaga, it circled Cosmos in an eccentric fashion, then converged on her. Yet before it could strike her, Cosmos pointed her right arm forward, unleashing a ray of light, the ray shot forward and struck Kefka right in his gut. The Firaga dispersed without Kefka actively controlling it, Kefka was flung back, spinning uncontrollably through the air.
After a few moment, he regained control of himself and came to a halt. Continuing to levitate in the air, he pointed his right hand forward, summoning a large chunk of ice in front of him, it broke into tiny shrapnel, and the pieces flew at Cosmos. Yet for every piece that flew at the goddess, a small burst of light appeared, catching and deflecting the little pieces of ice.
Unimpressed, Kefka moved to his next attack, positioning his body, he began to cast Forsaken Null, unfortunately for him, Cosmos attacked during his casting. A beam was shot from her finger, yet off-center from Kefka, going straight past him on the left.
"Hah! Was that supposed to hit me? Maybe you should wear glasses."
Cosmos then moved her arm across her field of vision, dragged the beam with it. The beam struck right into Kefka's size, dragged him along with it as it moved, until finally the beam dispersed with a massive outward force, flinging Kefka away.
Spinning and regaining control of himself, Kefka landed back on his feet. He rubbed his arm against his injured side, then he looked back up at Cosmos.
"Let's see how a deity takes the power of another deity!" Kefka raised his right arm into the air, creating a distortion in the air around him, then he thrust his hand down. In reaction, the Light of Judgment came down on Cosmos, she disappeared under the magic explosion as Kefka let his laughter run loose.
"Ah… nothing like the smell of smoking deities in the morning!" Kefka walked up to the smoke, expecting to see nothing but the smoldering remains of the goddess. Instead, small arrows of light shot out of the smoke, threatening to impale the clown, Kefka back flipped through the air, allowing the arrows to fly underneath him, Kefka retaliated with a charge through the air, toward the smoke. Twisting himself around, he allowed the Havok Wing to sprout out of his back, they struck something, but bent back as they did, it clearly wasn't Cosmos they had hit.
Returning himself to his proper orientation, and seeing that the smoke had cleared, Kefka saw a giant shield of light. With the attack blocked, the shield thrust forward, catching Kefka on the front of it, he could feel the light energy of the shield burning his body as he was dragged back, until finally the shield exploded. He was flung back, even as the lightly flames tried to engulf him, flying several meters back before landing away from Cosmos' Throne.
With a groan Kefka returned to his feet, seeing Cosmos standing calmly where she had been before he had used the Light of Judgment, he felt his own brand of psychopathic irritation rising.
"I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate YOU!" Kefka staggered for a moment, then returned to the air, "What do you think struggling can accomplish?"
Cosmos' calmness left her face at that statement, bowing her head and looking to the side. "Nothing we do will change this situation, freedom is beyond us, here."
Kefka raised an eyebrow at the goddess' statement. "Hey, hey hey hey. We fight, and we get to kill people we don't like, that's all we really need!"
Cosmos blinked and returned her head to its raised position. "That is a viewpoint few would understand, and less would appreciate."
"Why do you think I hate people so much?"
Cosmos made no response to this, instead, she summoned small bits of light around her, preparing to continue the fight.
Cosmos is Chaos' equal in terms of power, as such, the fact she's not seen fighting at all in Dissidia was, in my opinion, the big flaw with its story. So here we go.
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