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Ch. 37 Helping a Friend
The following day we all walked to Taejin's Tower, knowing by the end of the day we'll have fought a rather powerful fal'Cie. Once we got there Vanille said "Once we get through there, we're in Oerba!" "You're almost home," Snow told her, to which she agreed. "Doesn't exactly look like it's gonna be a leisurely stroll," Sazh said, nodding at something. We turned, and the Tower's master flew past us. "Dahaka," I said simply.
"Oh, so we just go through this fal'Cie's lair to get across?" Hope asked. "What another fal'Cie at this point?" Lightning asked. "And it was the plan anyway. So let's get moving," Sofia said. To that we all nodded, and went inside. The interior was made of a cool green stone, and we walked down a long hallway before we came into the main room. The edges of the room and grooves for the huge wheels that held up the rooms, and I knew whenever the arrangement of the rooms was changed they would move atop those wheels.
In the center of the room was a huge crystal that shone with a white-blue light, surrounded by four of the Menhirrim. The instant I looked at them I could hear whispers, as if another voice was speaking inside my head. Instantly I was on alert, until I realized that it wasn't Uried but the Menhirrim. "I'm not the only one hearing that am I?" Vanille asked. "I hear it too," Sazh said. He looked at the statues. "It couldn't be them, could it?"
"The Menhirrim. Living statues," I said simply. "It's weird, like hearing voices in my head," Hope said. They kept speaking, and Fang said "I hear it. 'Your presence hear draws the tyrant's gaze. Leave at once.'" "We can't leave; this is the only way to get through. Please! Help us," Vanille asked them. They spoke further, and Fang translated "'As you wish. Look for us, and the way will open.'" The statues all moved and took their swords, plunging them into the ground.
Instantly the tower shook, and with the sound of grating stone the floors above all turned and realigned, until the lift was made and the elevator roll down to our level. Then the statues disappeared, and Snow said "That was easy enough." "You never know. Could be a trap," Hope told him. "Could be. Don't see no stairs though. Do you?" Sazh asked. "Nope. This is our ride- bumpy or not," Fang announced. "So Deiru, exactly what is it we're supposed to do?" Sofia asked.
I sighed. "There are several of the Menhirrim, six in total, scattered throughout the various floors of the tower. Each one has had their power stolen by a different monster, and want us to get it back. It's simple in theory. We defeat the monsters, they get their power back, and as a reward they open the way to the tower apex. And that is where Dahaka will be," I explained.
They thought about this, until Sofia said "Well, they're eight of us, so based on the monsters we should split up the tasks, agreed?" We all agreed, and I said "Well, the monsters we'll be assigned are: a Gelatitan, an Ambling Bellows, a Gurangatch, a Mushussu, a Vetala, and a Penanggalan. The way I see it, the two most difficult monsters will be the Vetala and the Ambling Bellows, the second being because of its backup. So those two will be taken on with pairs, the rest will be one-on-one."
"Well, from what I remember the Gelatitan is strong against physical attacks, but magic works just fine," Hope said before smiling. "So I guess that's me." "Just give me Deceptisol and I'll take care of that Gurangatch," Snow said, pumping his fists. "That Mushussu absorbs elemental spells, but against regular physical moves it the same as usual," Fang said. I smiled and said "And just plain wailing on an enemy is your specialty. All right, it's yours."
"Numbers are what that Penanggalan uses, so I guess that's me," Sazh said. "Lightning and I can take care of that Ambling Bellows!" Vanille said, before adding "You two need to get some separation!" Both me and Light blushed profusely, much to everyone else's amusement. "All right then. Me and Sofia will take on that Vetala," I said. She nodded, suddenly quiet, and as we went up each of us broke off to tackle our individual jobs.
Me and Sofia got off on the fifth tier and walked around, trying to figure out where the Vetala was. As we walked I noticed Sofia was walking rather hesitantly, and there seemed to be a flicker of fear on her expression. "What's up?" I asked. She managed to make a smile, but failed at the last second and said "I guess I'm just scared, that's all." I laughed. "You're scared? We've fought Cie'th like this before and came out fine. How should this be any different?"
She looked at me dead in the eye. "I'm scared because the last I came in contact with a Vetala, one of us lost an eye." That stopped me, and I remembered that she was right; back when she had summoned that Cie'th in the incident where I lost my eye, the Cie'th she had summoned was a Vetala. "Don't worry about it; we were both younger and weaker back then. And this time around we have real magic." She smiled and said "Thanks Deiru."
I told her it was no problem and to be ready, and it was a good thing I did. Because at that moment I hear a feral roar and saw our target fall down from the rafter to float in front of us. A Vetala. Instantly Sofia back away, her confidence faltering. I yelled "Stay strong!" and charged forward, sword in hand. The Cie'th activated Inertial Barrier, and when I brought Indomitus down it bounced right off. Grunting in frustration, I cast Ruin before jumping back, but the spell hardly even phased it.
The Vetala roared and used Multicast, hitting me with Fira, Aerora and Blizzara all in rapid succession. That spurred Sofia into action, and she countered with Thundara and Ruinga. The spell didn't really hurt it, but it did draw its attention away long enough for me to try and come up with a plan. Until we managed to stagger this thing, it was completely immune to physical attacks and also took next to no damage from magical attacks.
Also, it knew just about every magical spell on the roster, leaving us with a very formidable foe. But if there was a way to make it weaker while it still had its barrier… then it hit me. "Sofia! Switch to Saboteur and try to hit with Imperil!" I called. She nodded and began casting that particular spell only, while I used Challenge and Steelguard, provoking the Vetala into attacking me. It fired a total of six Fires at me, which didn't do much damage thanks to the Steelguard, but I could still feel the heat.
Sofia smiled as one Imperil spell successfully took hold, making it more susceptible to elemental spells. With a smile I dropped my Steelguard and cast Firaga, creating an explosion of sweltering heat that sent the beast reeling. But to my shock it didn't attack me, but instead turned and cast a barrage of Fogs at Sofia. At least one of them worked, and Sofia looked at her hands in horror and her magic was locked away, the only weapon she had.
The Cie'th apparently noticed that too, because it glided towards her and used Multicast again, casting Fire, Thundara, and Blizzaga. The Fire knocked her back before the Thundara pushed into the ground, giving the Blizzaga the perfect chance to send her flying. She landed on her back side and coughed red, it looked like one of the spikes from the Blizzaga had punctured a lung. "Sofia!" I called, running forward and casting Curasa.
The healing spell stopped her from coughing up blood, but I could see the fabric of her jacket start to darken. She was bleeding, and not at a good pace. Still the Vetala came after her, casting Aeroga to send her flying again, also using a trio of Blizzards to freeze her to the ground so she wouldn't move. She tried to break free, even cast any magic to help ward the Cie'th off, but the Fog status she was hit with wouldn't let her cast a single spell.
I ran forward, but in almost slow motion it cast a trio of Pains followed by one more Firaga, the explosion melting the ice, burning Sofia and sending her flying. She crashed into a wall and slid down, nit getting up. "Sofia!" I yelled, my vision going a little red. It was then I felt my power start to grow and channel into my sword, which began to glow with a silver light. Acting on instant, I jumped into the air and looked down at the Vetala.
It looked up at me, and without even thinking I called "Lunar Blade!" and threw Indomitus at the Cie'th. It sailed through the air and pierced the barrier, shattering it and stabbing the Vetala with the sound of shattering glass. It roared as the huge blade went through its chest and halfway out the back, but then Indomitus glowed brighter and fissures started spreading from it across its skin.
The beast roared in pain as the cracks spread and grew wider, light shining fro in between them. It thrashed and writhed as they kept spreading, until it entire body was covered by a spider web of shining cracks. The Vetala gave one last roar of pain and rage before the light shined brighter than ever and it exploded, detonating in a blast of light and sweltering heat. I landed and the ground and panted. It looks like that move right there was my ultimate technique, and it really took its toll on me.
But not giving my body the chance to get exhausted, I ran over to Sofia and rolled her onto her back. Her shirt was now almost entirely wet with blood, and they were nasty burn marks all over her arms, legs, and chest. "No, no, no. Sofia. Come on, stay with me!" I said, casting Cure and Cure all over her body. The sight of my best childhood friend covered in blood wasn't helping me think straight, and I worried if I was going to able to heal her soon enough.
"Deiru…" she said faintly. My gaze snapped to her face and I looked at her worriedly. "Sofia? Just hold still. I can fix this," I told her. "Use… your powers…" she said, and I was confused. What good would my powers do me? "My powers? Which one?" I asked. With a great deal of effort she smiled, and said "Salvation… dummy." I almost hit myself on the head; how could I have forgotten about that one? "All right, just hold still." She did, and I held my hands over her torso.
Focusing on my healing powers and willing them to emerge, my hands began shining with a milky white light. The light began to wrap around her body like a cloth until she was completely enveloped, the light shining brightest over her various wounds. There was the sounds of burnt flash cracking and falling off, the punctured lung sewing itself together and the sound of lost skin regenerating until it was as good as new.
By the time I was done and the light faded Sofia was asleep, all her injuries completely healed. I smiled, but then my head began swimming and I fell onto my hands and knees. The cost of my Salvation spell was that I would become severely dizzy, but that coupled with the exhaustion from unleashing Lunar Blade was starting to make me lose consciousness just like it used to. I managed to cast Absolute Protection on Sofia, trusting that to make sure she stayed safe, before the exhaustion of all three of those techniques knocked me out.
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I woke up a little while later to someone pushing on my shoulder. Cracking one eye open, the only eye I had, I looked to see it was Lightning kneeling next to me. I smiled at her and said "Hey." She smiled back and also said "Hey." Grunting, I put my hands on the ground beside me and pushed, getting myself up into a sitting position. The others were all standing around me and Sofia, who was also starting to get up.
"Looks like that Vetala was a little more of a challenge than you thought, huh?" Sazh asked. I hung my head. "Sorry for passing out like that. I'll bet you guys cleared your mission like it was nothing," I said. Snow chuckled. "Actually, we had just about as much trouble as you, if not more." I frowned, and Sofia asked "What are you guys talking about?"
"All those targets turned out to be even more than just one or two of us could handle. That Mushussu could buff itself up while it had two Yakashinkis for back up, while the Penanggalan was just one of dozens of bat-like Cie'th. Hope managed to defeat the Gelatitan on his sown, and he joined with Snow to help him beat the Gurangatch, and they help each of us with back up, until all us went up against that Ambling Bellows, who turned out to be more of a challenge for Vanille and me," Lightning explained.
I smiled and said "Let me guess: You guys took out the Cryptos first before attacking the target." Vanille nodded. "Yeah, and it call for a whole bunch of more bad guys to show up once they were gone!" "That's why I always believed the Ambling Bellows to be so powerful. If you focus and it and it alone, then the fight itself isn't too difficult, but once that thing calls for backup it turns into, to coin the phrase, a complete shit show."
The others nodded and Hope said "So really, besides Snow and me, the two of you handles yourselves better than any of us." I smiled and ruffled his hair. "Thanks for the compliment, and you did good too. An entire Gelatitan all by your lonesome; not bad." Hope smiled and said "Thanks," and Fang called "All right, enough with the mushy stuff. While you two were out cold Dahaka tired to pick a fight with us at least twice. But then those statues protected us at got off almost all of its tail."
I smiled. "I told you that would happen, didn't I?" She rolled her eyes and scowled, which only caused me to smile wider. "Well, now that all the missions are done the way to the tower apex will be open. The two of us are well and rested. How about the rest of you?" They all said that they were rested up; apparently we had slept longer than I thought.
"Well, then let's get going. We go topside, have a quick fight with Dahaka, and then head down the other side of the tower to Oerba. What do you say?" I asked. They all agreed, even though they knew the fight wasn't going to be all that quick, and we walked out of the room to the lift and all got in. Light pushed the rusty lever down with her boot and the lift spurred to life, carrying us to the top of Taejin's Tower.
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Aaah, I so enjoyed the righting of this chapter, and I hope you all enjoyed it too. Because up next is the battle with Dahaka!
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