Draco: You know, all things considered, you really only explore, like, the top half of Kefka's Tower. You dive in from the top, and the warp to the madman's throne is at the top, as well. Sure, I suppose the bottom half could be where you fight the Statue of the Gods and it just looks like a void because Kefka's frickin' crazy, but still.
Characters, weapons, origins, locations © Square Enix. Monsters © Akihisa Ikeda.
Demon, Fiend & Goddess
Terra opened her eyes.
She was standing on water. Not in water - her feet rested on the surface, as though it were as solid as the cave she had left. The water was an endless plain in all directions, and the sky above a lightless, silvery glow. They had all linked hands when Crusader had sent them forth, but now her friends were scattered before her, all in various states of kneeling from the pain of their transport - only Celes, nearest her, was still on her feet.
A moment's pause, to ensure all her allies were there; then she turned round.
There was something sitting there. It looked like a bench, forged white gold - but it shimmered with magic, indescribable power emanating from it, and after a moment she realized it was a throne.. Lying against one side was a female figure, and upon the other were two males, all cast in black iron, each bearing three eyes upon their faces. Sitting at the woman's fingertips were a trio of coins, each just barely touching the next; across one man's legs was a great axe, a screaming face on the blade's grip to the shaft; and scattered around the other man's feet were what looked like branches torn from a tree.
Horror struck Terra as she realized what these were, and her hand went up to her mouth to stifle her gasp. "The Warring Triad..."
Quetzalli Gang?
The madman's voice echoed around them, and everyone went for their weapons.
No... Quetzalli was a fighter. They picked the one that wasn't a fighter.
Celes drew Lightbringer with a scream of blade against sheath, swinging Paladin onto her arm.
Edgar braced the Crusader's spear in both hands, its tip gleaming.
And there was a number in there somewhere...
Sabin raised his fists, adorned with the dragon-and-tiger gloves from Duncan.
Cyan drew the Crusader's katana, both hands closing on the grip.
The Twelve from Lakshmi?
Gau gave a low growl, his body trembling as he prepared to change.
Relm raised the paintbrush she had taken from the Sixth Kingdom's studio.
No, it was five down from twelve...
Shadow drew his knife, Interceptor barking at his side.
Strago shook his coins into his hand, lashing them into a sword one-handed.
And they used the little kids' name for Lakshmi...
Locke drew his blade and throwing edge, prepared to use both.
Terra gripped Ragnarok, her gaze flitting everywhere.
Starlet's Seven!
There was a surge from the water before her, and Terra threw her arm before her as the spray rained over her; and when it faded, Kefka was sitting on that throne.
He wasn't the clown he had been before. The paint was washed from his face, and there were shadows under his eyes as though he had been deprived from sleep. The multicoloured garments he normally wore were absent; only a wrap of cloth not unlike a kilt adorned his body, leaving his chest and most of his legs bare. His normally untidy hair was spiked back, with a long tail pooling next to him upon his seat. His hands were set, palms-up, at his sides; his head was bowed, at first, but no sooner had she taken all of this in then he raised his gaze to see her.
"Starlet's Seven." His voice was slower than ever before, far calmer than a madman's voice has right to be. "Welcome to the end."
Terra tightened her grip on Ragnarok's handle. "Your end," she insisted.
Kefka's eyes widened, just slightly. "Really?" He did not raise his voice. "You really think you're going to get out of this? Look around you." Slowly, he raised his hands at his side. "This is what's left of your monster village. Empty waters, with only wreckage and dead men to show anything was ever here. Roku Okoku was a ship. Now that it has been sunk, its passengers and crew have been stranded at sea... or have joined it to the ocean floor."
"I know."
The words caught Kefka off-guard as - slowly - Terra drew Ragnarok, raising it so the tip faced him. "That's not why we're here. Roku Okoku is gone. Its people are gone. Father is gone. We're not here to bring any of them back. We're here to end you. We will accept anything that follows, if only the world will be spared of your fires. The flames of a madman who fancies himself a god."
There was a long, deafening silence.
Then Kefka lashed his head back and laughed - a single, violent note that echoed across the plain of water. His skin began to split on either side of his lips, like a mermaid as her teeth grew; but while a mermaid would see twin, jagged cracks from each tip of her mouth, this only saw a single rip, as though a knife had been taken to his mouth to forcibly tear a smile open. Nonetheless, his mouth still open from his note of laughter, they saw spiked teeth rip from within his mouth, turning his lips crimson with blood as he lashed his head down.
"Well. You're nothing if not confident."
He shot to his feet and slammed one foot into the surface of the water - and the world around them turned dark.
"Now, let's see whatcha got to back it up!"
In a moment had that sky turned red, and the ocean been dyed black; and only a moment further passed before it became a plain of necrous rock beneath a fiery sky. Cracks of hellious crimson ripped across its surface, and Starlet's Seven leapt apart as flames spewed where they had been gathered, the earth tearing in every direction from it. Kefka's low-seated throne of white gold was a necrous light in a void of hellious darkness, and the iron-cast figures shattered at its sides as the madman spread his arms. His flesh began to darken, charring from within until the only light on his body was his eyes - and then those eyes became voids of dark purple. Wings shot out of his back - two feathered wings of blinding white, two more of fire-scarred grey, and two leathered wings in black, all of them dripping with blood.
They were nonetheless motionless as his body lifted off the stone beneath his feet, until he peered down on them from higher than a Cyclops would.
"I may not sit on Arubboth's throne, nor that of Pandaemonium, but with this power I could well topple them both! What can you do to stop me? All will burn in the fires I cast through the broken link!"
Without a word between them, Terra lashed her hand down, blasting ice onto the surface of that charred earth; and Celes leapt upon it, letting the ice expand until she was near equal with him.
"You think your random explosions mean anything?" she snapped, raising Lightbringer towards him. "For every hundred homes you ruin, the people of the world will build a thousand more!"
Kefka lashed his hand forward; but Lady Frost only thrust Paladin forward, causing the blast to echo in every direction away from her.
"Who will build new homes when there is no one left to build them? Men, women, and children will all be blown apart!"
Terra lashed another blast of ice to her other side, and Locke leapt upon it, his bladed feet digging into the icy surface as Celes expanded it, raising him equal to herself as the madman turned to him.
"A life is never lost!" he retaliated, bracing his edge to throw. "You can ruin the bodies, but the soul remains unharmed! It flees this world, and is reborn!"
Kefka swept a hand towards him; Stock Barrel simply arced around the pillar with his bladed feet, the blast passing where he had been harmlessly as he reclaimed his perch.
"Humans propagate like fleas, and monsters breed like rabbits! Men wage war, and beasts consume one another! The world is already driving itself towards destruction! What good will your drive do when it all falls apart?"
It was now that Terra leapt skyward for herself, the Sixth Kingdom's magic lighting her body as she arrived equal with her friends and stood upon a plane of air.
"Do you even hear yourself talking?" she demanded. "You're contradicting yourself! You're grasping at straws! You don't even know what your point is! You're just yelling because you want to have the last word!"
Kefka turned towards her, his mouth open as he began stuttering.
"I... you... I...!"
Dances With Swords lashed her hands down, magic wrapping all her friends, and together they lifted higher until they stood on nothing around him.
"We may not be Feymarch, nor might we have any power comparable," she vowed, "but so long as people like you would ruin the world, there will always be men and monsters like us who will see you fall! And nothing you say will change that!"
The madman smirked.
"Prove it!"
He lashed his hand heavenward.
The skies above them turned blinding gold, and no one had time to react before the air around them was consumed in murderous fire.
+x+x+x+
"Lady Dances...?"
The children of Mobliz had stopped their guard after their Lady had left, but Katarin and Duane had taken it upon themselves to keep watch while the younger ones waited below. Cuore, the girl who had returned the small item, had found herself waiting near the steps of the basement in anticipation of some news; at her murmur, the children all turned towards her.
"What is it, Cuore?" Cress asked.
Cuore shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "But... I feel like something's happening to Lady Dances."
Meredy was worried. "You don't think...?"
"No!" Lloyd shouted suddenly. "Lady Dances promised she'd come back! And she's gonna come back!"
"She's gonna be okay," Milla promised. "She stopped Humbaba, she's gonna be okay!"
Lloyd nodded. "Yeah!"
Cuore lowered her gaze. "But..."
"No buts," Cress insisted. "If you're worried, then just tell her you're waiting!"
"Tell her?" Cuore asked. "How?"
"Just say it," Meredy told her.
That was about as vague as instructions could get, but Cuore only closed her eyes.
"Lady Dances... we're waiting for you."
The other children all nodded.
"I'm gonna say it, too," Lloyd added. "Lady Dances, we're waiting for you to come back!"
And one by one, the rest of the younglings waiting for their Lady said the same.
+x+x+x+
Lady Dances...
Terra opened her eyes. She could see nothing but flames. "What...?"
...we're waiting for you.
Her mind was playing tricks on her. She could have sworn she heard Cuore's voice.
Lady Dances, we're waiting for you to come back!
The voices of the children of Mobliz echoed around her head, and she wanted nothing more than to tell them she was alright - but in her heart, she knew she couldn't lie to those children.
And her magic understood that - and in an instant, those words were not a lie.
She was lying on the charred plain around Kefka's twisted throne. Her friends were scattered around her, and flames were receding into the stone. Kefka was hovering just over his throne, twin grins on his face - the carved grin, and his own lips; and the moment her eyes were open, the voluntary smile faltered.
"What the...?"
Her fingers brushed against Ragnarok, and she drove it into the stone to support herself as she rose to her knees.
"Did you think that would stop us?"
Flames began to gather around her own feet - vibrant pink flames, thick with the Sixth Kingdom's arcana - as she set them upon the earth and rose tall.
"Did you think you would stop us?"
Her friends began to move around her as she whirled the golden blade in hand.
"You, who would see the world burn!"
She leapt skyward, and Kefka had no chance to react before she drew the edge across his torso, digging a deep cut in his flesh - a cut that would not bleed.
And the air around him began to blaze.
As Starlet's Seven rose, they saw flames race towards Kefka from across the fiery plains he had forged. Even he could not stop himself from yelling as they dug into him, forcing their way through his flesh, and he lashed his head back in a tortured scream as his body exploded, white light wiping the fatigue from the twelve of them.
Terra arced back through the air, landing where she had just been as her friends raised their weapons.
"How did you do that?" Locke demanded.
"I have no idea!" Terra replied.
"I think that was Zantetsu!" Edgar exclaimed.
"Can you do that again?" Setzer inquired.
"Let me give it a try!" Celes called.
Dances blasted ice immediately behind Kefka as Frost charged forward, and she expanded it to send her flying - and Kefka whirled around in time for her to lash a skyward strike across his face.
The air around him began to waver, shining, and from nowhere did three pearls of light descend. As they arrived at eye level, the madman gazed left and right, swinging at them only for his swings to pass through, and after he had swiped at each once they began to burst, wrapping him in blinding light that gave Starlet's Seven new energy.
Celes landed back again.
"Good Bahamut, that was amazing!" Cyan cheered.
"Kefka finished!" Gau whooped.
"I think we can all say yes to that!" Sabin agreed.
Then the madman lashed his hands back and spread his wings wide, and all of them guarded themselves as he screeched with enough force to rattle the earth.
"Shut up! Shut up! I am sick of your optimistic Mulch! If you're all gonna cheer...!"
He swept both arms skyward.
"...do it after you die!"
The earth pulled itself apart in all directions beneath him, his throne sinking into the flames that appeared there, and Starlet's Seven leapt away as something surged out of the fire, towering high above them all - a massive statue, blazing gold at first from the heat of the flames it had just left, but slowly cooling to reveal its form.
A sunken, ruined face on a charred body buried in earth from his waist hellward.
Relm stumbled back, horrified at what she saw. "Fiend!"
A beast, engine, and array of bodies, forming four components of the material realm.
Interceptor barked, and Shadow growled in shock. "...Demon?!"
A sorrowful woman bathed in heavenly light, screaming with a man in her arms.
Strago braced his staff against the earth to support himself. "Goddess...!"
And above them all, the madman flew, his arms spread wide.
"Beyond the chaos, the end draws near!"
Cyan was the first to act; the Crusader's katana was gripped between both hands as he charged towards the buried figure at the base of the statue. Fiend's right hand slammed into the earth, propelling a shockwave of flaming ash, but the samurai swung his blade earthward, splitting the fire at his sides. Strago dashed past him, staff and coin sword in hand, and with a swing of the blade the air began to whirl around the imprisoned beast, battering him. The left hand curled into a fist, and sharpened gales surged forward; but the old man simply raised his staff, against which the attacks fell still. Celes promptly charged past him as Fiend roared; the coming magic was stopped with a forward thrust of Paladin, and she quickly lashed Lightbringer against his chest, causing him to roar in pain. Strago swept his coin sword again, and water surged forth from nowhere, slamming into the body full-force; and Cyan charged forward, swinging the katana once, twice, thrice with fierce, sweeping blows against the arms and torso before leaping skyward and slamming a powerful earthward strike into its helm.
The buried Fiend went still, and the pieces of Demon began to move above.
"Climb!" Locke called.
"What?" Edgar demanded.
"A blade'll never get him from down here!" Relm agreed. "Let's move!"
Edgar rolled his eyes, incredulous, before propelling himself into the air, the Crusader's lance in both hands. The tiger's head on the fore of the statue reached forth to bite at him, but the machinist caught the bite on the shaft of his spear, his legs elongating to strike the statue and hold him up. Locke began clambering up the side of the structure, his feet bladed and his throwing edge in hand; the bodies began to move, but the treasure hunter evaded them, striking the ones he passed with the edge before jamming it into the roaring machine. Relm swept her rainbow-headed paintbrush forward, causing what garb the bodies wore to move against them; Locke quickly pulled his throwing edge out as the artist guided the cloths into the gears, strangling their wearers. Edgar quickly arced around the tiger, driving his spear into its helm as the bare form atop it tried to strike at him; the machinist only lashed a few elongating kicks into its chest to stun it before prying the spear out and slamming the butt of it into the being's face. Another body on the back tried to attack the still-climbing Locke, but he only slipped his throwing edge into his belt before drawing out his blade and driving it into the creature's torso.
Demon's machine ceased its roaring, and Goddess began to cry out.
Magic began to tremor from the top of the statue, knocking Locke and Edgar from the machine's surface before they had a chance to climb. Terra managed to suppress - though not entirely cease - their fall with a surge of the Sixth Kingdom's magic, and Shadow and Interceptor began to move, ascending the structure with powerful leaps. Setzer hurled a hand of cards after him - ace, king, queen, jack, and joker - and the cards wove through the air in a way a simple throw oughtn't be capable, slamming into the man in Goddess' arms. He lashed out as the cards dug into them, causing them to part from his arms - and Interceptor quickly leapt up behind him, driving Shadow's knife into his shoulder plate. The assassin quickly rose up between the two, hurling the Crusader's minute blades in a spiral around him, and in an instant they closed on the two figures there, slamming into them mercilessly. He pried them out of each one, hurling them into the other and dashing around their blows as Setzer hurled another hand - two, three, four, five, six - that cut off the body's attempt to strike Shadow from behind.
Goddess closed her eyes, the man in her arms going still.
Everyone was caught off-guard when the entire statue began moving again. Shadow and Interceptor had no chance to react before Goddess' scream stunned them, and the body knocked from the top of the statue. With a roar, the wings of a siren surged out of Gau's back, and he flew skyward with intent to catch them; but the tiger's face nearly bit him in two, and in his evasion his wings were nearly caught in the gears of Demon's machine; only a last-minute shift back to base stopped him from being shredded by the attack, and when the bodies around him began to move he leapt away only to find nothing safe to land on. Terra began to call on the Kingdom's magic, intending to stop their fall - but the buried Fiend lashed a hand forward, and she hardly managed to leap away from the attack as they plummeted. Strago quickly formed waves around Gau and Shadow to lessen the impact, but the landing still hit them pretty hard.
Above them all, Kefka began to laugh at their futility.
"Come on! You can do better than that!"
Terra growled. "Damn it!" she snapped. "What do we do?"
Something sounded around them - something that did not belong here.
The roar of an airship.
Starlet's Seven turned away from the statue to see something flying towards them - a familiar vessel in black and gold. With a yelp, they all leapt aside as it surged far lower than it ought, brushing against the structure and getting knocked aside by the bare figure atop the tiger's head. Setzer was the first to get onto his feet, turning towards the airship - the Blackjack.
"My airship!" he exclaimed. "He stole my airship! Son of a bitch!"
Edgar swore under his breath. "I knew I should have brought that Air Anchor..."
Gau charged towards him, taking siren's wings again. "We fly!" he insisted. "Get ship back!" The gambler had no chance to argue before the wild boy grabbed him under the arms and took off with him into the air.
Frost turned to Dances. "You've got to deal with Kefka."
"What?" Terra was incredulous. "Me? But-!"
"You're the only one who can get up there!" Celes insisted. "And the elder's Ultima is the only weapon here that can hurt him! Find out where they put his onyx and smash it, the entire Merge will fall apart if he doesn't have a magic object!"
Terra grit her teeth hesitating; but after only a moment's thought did she realize that Celes was right. "Alright," she insisted. Pointing at the writhing statue; "Keep that thing busy."
"Yeah!"
Then she drew out Ultima and dropped low, and everyone stepped back as vibrant pink flames consumed her body; her flesh within was consumed in a white nova, and she leapt heavenward, gravity loosing its hold on her as she flew towards Kefka holding above the structure he had made of the Warring Triad.
The madman had time only to lower his gaze before Terra lashed Ragnarok skyward up his torso, and he was sent tumbling back - not from pain, but from the force of the blow. He whirled back forward, his six wings spreading, and he raised his gaze to see Terra hold the gold blade towards him, extending her other hand to the side; and there he saw a minute figure, a thin black stick no larger than a flower's stem.
It was poised like a pen - but the moment he took notice of it, she shifted her grip to that of a blade.
Colbalt surged from the weapon; an edge of pure energy.
Now, showtime.
Kefka grinned, the carved smile extending further across his face as he braced his hands at his sides.
"Curtains, rise!"
The two surged towards each other; Terra swung Ragnarok for an earthward blow, but Kefka beat the edge aside with one hand before lashing his other for a strike. Dances took the blow without flinching, bringing Ultima for an in-strike, and Kefka's attempts to stop it on his hand only saw his hand bladed through. He screeched in pain, but the pain did not last; the cobalt edge had not even left his flesh before it began to lash itself back together. Terra simply continued her spin, lashing a kick into his face; the fire of her flesh and the voltage of her strike had him reeling, helpless, as she arced Ultima around again, slicing through his shoulder and down the opposite leg, hoping to find the jewel the Gestahlian Empire had embedded in his body.
No such luck; the bladeless edge struck only flesh that rebound itself as it passed, and Kefka swung a skyward kick into her face before his other foot had even been rebound. She moved with the strike, arcing into a backwards flip and lashing Ultima up through his body; he flew after it, slamming his wings on one side across her in a moving blow. She beat them away with Ragnarok before thrusting her weapon earthward, but he only evaded it and punched her in the underside of the jaw. She stuck the gold into his wings and hurled him upward; then she flew after him, spinning with the bladeless edge outstretched as she had against Humbaba; but it struck nothing that would weaken him, and as she peaked her flight above him he shot after her with one hand lashed towards her.
He was stopped as his fingers brushed the edge of the flames around her feet.
Terra couldn't make sense of it - but then she saw it. Minute strands of flesh - thinner than anything she had seen before, thinner than she thought flesh could be - linking him to the massive statue below. After a moment she realized what she was seeing, and she realized what that massive structure was.
That's him. That's part of his Merge!
Kefka saw what she was doing before she could get started. "No...! Don't you dare-!"
Her body burst, pink flames ripping out in every direction as she surged earthward, impaling Ragnarok in his torso and leaving him at the end of his wires. She surged earthward towards where her friends were clashing against the great monstrous figure, and as she landed everything on the statue's structure tried to lash out at her. Her friends ceased their clash, approaching her, and Locke was the one who asked, "Terra, what are you-?"
You need to get on the Blackjack.
Her words caught everyone off-guard. "What's an airship going to do?" Locke demanded.
That thing - and here she pointed at the statue with her empty hand, the Kingdom's magic forcing everything on it to still - is part of Kefka. That's his Merge of the Warring Triad and everyone from Roku Okoku! You need to get to the Blackjack before I take it down!
"Take it down?" Celes demanded. "How are you going to do that?"
Very dangerously, Terra insisted. Now get on board! Setzer! This shout was directed at the airship - and a yoko's voice is such that on board, Setzer and Gau had heard her talking with everyone else.
"Well," Setzer mused, knowing Terra couldn't hear him, "if that's the hand you're going to play, then ante up!"
Gau, still wrapped in a siren's body, gave a cheer - and this, Terra did hear.
The Blackjack flew low - lower than was probably safe - towards Starlet's Seven. Terra opened her empty hand, and the Sixth Kingdom's magic wrapped her friends - and against their protests, for none of them wanted to see her fight alone, they were lifted from the earth and landed upon the deck.
Get as far away as you can! Terra told the pilot.
"You got a maximum value on that?" Setzer asked.
Just go!
The Blackjack soared away, and Terra surged towards the massive statue her friends had been fighting. The half-buried Fiend lashed his hands towards her, but pearls of blinding white magic rose up around her, beating the strikes away as she soared heavenward. The pieces of Demon tried to attack her, but the holy lights surged towards them, stunning them as she soared higher still. As she neared the peak Goddess screamed, trying to throw her off-guard; she only arced back until she flew with her head earthward, raising her empty hand and launching flames towards the man before the tortured face; then she flipped once more as she neared Kefka - who was still trying to wrest Ragnarok out of his chest.
Terra kicked the gold blade's tip with enough force to launch it pommel-first, her strike continuing into Kefka and pushing him until his wires were so tight as to be nearly broken; then she flew skyward and gripped the golden blade before bracing Ultima so the tip of its bladeless edge was levelled on the one only it could harm.
It ends here, Kefka!
He had no chance to react before she surged forward with all the power in her being, all the magic the Sixth Kingdom had to offer - she cleaved through the madman and continued to surge down the entire structure below him, tearing apart everything it had to offer.
She had connected with the stone below when she heard something shatter.
The Blackjack was soaring as fast as it could, but Starlet's Seven could still see the statue, still identify what had been Demon, Fiend, or Goddess when the blast of ocean magic began to surge around it, the entire structure consumed in a heavenous cobalt light as Kefka, trapped at the end of his line, screamed in sheer pain.
Terra could feel Ultima's blade fade as the magic expanded around her - and she could not feel anything but her fingers around Ragnarok when it condensed, and the structure burst, sending her flying.
The last thing she remembered was colliding with the deck of an airship.
Draco: I've been hearing what is either Square's implications or REALLY hopeful thinking that Final Fantasy VI would be receiving something on the 3DS. Can I only say screw. That. Mulch. I will be very impressed if the 3DS can handle graphics enough to give VI visuals worth Balance and Ruin. I want to see the Statue of the Gods in all its writhing steampunk glory, and if they're gonna give VII an HD ReMIX I want them to give VI appropriate treatment.
(side note to any Square officials reading this: disregard the above rant in its entirety, if you're gonna give VI a 3DS remake I will object to NOTHING)
