BOOK 2: THE TALE OF THE CHOSEN KING

CHAPTER 13 – EPISODE GLADIOLUS

It had only been two days since he left Cape Caem. Training on his own was boring, to say the least, given that the monsters in that area weren't as strong as he had expected. Or maybe he had grown stronger. Sitting in the midst of a recent carnage, he let his sword rest at his side while the breeze refreshed his face. He felt good, but the pang nagging at him wouldn't let go.

He wasn't strong enough. That mercenary wench from the empire had mopped the floor with the whole group and, afterwards, that pompous Lord Ravus had appeared. Gladiolus still felt sick at the stomach when thinking about the Chancellor stepping in to avoid the fight. Next time it would be different.

His phone buzzed.

"Gladio?"

"Yeah… who do you think it is?"

"Catch you at a bad time?"

"Are you there yet?"

"Yeah, I'm at the Crow's Nest."

"Good. Thanks for agreeing to meet with me."

"Sure."

"So… Are you ready to move out?"

"Of course. What about you? Are you mentally prepared?"

"Of course. I'll be right over."

Gladiolus had grown up hearing stories of a place called the Tempering Grounds, where warriors would go to test their mettle against the Blademaster. No one had ever returned from that place. None except Cor Leonis. The marshal had ventured into the depths of the Tempering Grounds when he was fourteen and came out alive. That deed made him earn the moniker of The Immortal but, far from boasting about it, Cor never talked about what happened, or who was the Blademaster.

The marshal waited for him at the Taelpar Rest Area. It was a place Gladio had already seen on their way south to Cape Caem. Only two tables were occupied that morning, eating in silence while the radio announcer droned on about new regulations on the area. The empire had occupied Lestallum, and made sure that the people on that region knew who was calling the shots now.

Gladio spotted the black-clad figure of Cor sitting at the bar, nursing a cup of coffee.

"'Bout time," said the older man, not turning to see him when the Shield sat at his side. Then he asked Gladio if he was ready to take on the Blademaster.

"I got against the High Commander and got my ass handed to me. I didn't stand a chance. And I will never unless I get more power."

"Then answer my question: are you ready or not?"

"You think I would've called you here if I weren't?"

The marshal then turned to him.

"So you're ready to face death?"

Gladio scowled. Dying wasn't on his plans, not while he still had his duty as Shield. Cor's piercing glance did not waver.

"Gilgamesh awaits challengers in the deepest recesses of those ruins," the marshal said. "It's been thirty years since we uncovered the caves. We've sent countless expeditions, but all of our efforts have afforded us no rewards… and no survivors."

"Except for you," Gladio pointed out. "You undertook the trial, and you made it back alive."

Cor's expression became even somber, and his eyes got lost at some point in the distance.

"Barely," he murmured.

Then he got up and signaled Gladio to follow him.

There was a path between the rocky walls in the forest behind the rest area. The official information said that it came to a dead end, but Cor knew it lead to the entrance of the Tempering Grounds. One only had to know how to open it.

"Did you tell your friends why you were taking off?" the marshal asked Gladio as they made their way to the Grounds.

"Just said it was business. Didn't want 'em getting all worried about me."

"Or knowing your pride took a beating."

The path inside the Grounds was lit by torches. Under their light Gladio saw the cave strewn with mummified corpses of soldiers. Some were recent, but most of them wore uniforms and armors that Gladio had only seen in museums and History books. The stagnant air almost made him sneeze.

They reached a room of sorts. There the upper part of the cave opened and let the sunlight filter through the vegetation above. However, something in the cave made all the colors appear washed out and sickly.

As soon as the two men stepped closer to the room's center, strange, wispy lights swirled around them, to then enter into the corpses, reanimating them.

As he battled the living dead, Gladio noticed that Cor kept himself mostly behind. It was fine: this was his test, and the marshal was there only as a backup.

The rest of the cave wasn't very different from that first room: the wandering souls of the fallen warriors tested them constantly. What was worse, their voices didn't stop taunting him as they walked in-between battles.

But the souls revealed they were there to test those determined to become the King's Shield, and prepared them to inherit the power they pursued. They were the soldiers Gilgamesh had commanded in life, following the Blademaster beyond the grave to scare the unworthy away.

"Then they'd better prepare for disappointment," Gladio boasted aloud. "I don't scare easy."

Following the path led them to a stream running down as the only means to reach the lower levels. Said stream led them to a pool where a giant serpent dwelled, not very different from the one they had to slay at the Greyshire Grotto's entrance. However, there was something off about that animal, in that it seemed much weaker than its surface counterpart. Maybe the sunless environment had something to do with it.

Nevertheless, Cor helped Gladio during that fight, if only to prevent the younger warrior from being poisoned or too tired to continue.

Gladio cleaned his greatsword on the stream's waters, but when he raised his head again the air felt suffocating, and the lights had dimmed so much he had difficulties getting his bearings. Cor had disappeared and, when Gladio tried searching for him, he saw a whirlwind of darkness forming outside the water, and a humanoid figure stepping out of it. It was a giant of a man, clad in heavy armor with a mask obscuring his face. He wielded a long sword on his right hand, and he was bereft of his left arm.

This one armed warrior stepped towards him, and the water didn't ripple under his heavy feet.

"You come to prove yourself worthy of my mantle?" his eerie voice echoed through the chamber.

"I do," said Gladio defiantly. "I am here to undertake the Trial of Gilgamesh."

"And what is it you hope to glean?"

"Power… and you're gonna give it to me."

"Is that so?" Gilgamesh's voice dripped with scorn as he lifted his sword.

Despite his bravado, Gladio could do little more than dodge the Blademaster's attacks and block them with his shield. He didn't give up, though, and kept resisting, but he was being slowly driven into a corner.

"Brute force alone does little to impress," Gilgamesh scoffed at him while Gladiolus tried to parry one of his hits. "Only the one who possesses both muscle and mettle of equal caliber deserves the honor of fighting beside the Chosen King as his sworn Shield."

The image of Ravus flashed before his eyes, flaring his wrath.

"You saying I don't?" he grunted.

With a single push, Gilgamesh sent him rolling aside.

"A great evil threatens the people of your world," the Blademaster said. "It is but the King of Kings and his Shield who can safeguard their lives. All those unworthy or unwilling to rise to the task meet their end here, by my blade."

"I ain't meeting mine any time soon," Gladio declared. "This trial hasn't even begun."

"If you do not fear death, then go forth with reckless abandon and prove your worth," said the ghost, as it dissolved into darkness once more.

The air cleared and the lights returned. Cor had been standing by the water all that time, and when they were reunited, the marshal told him that a great cloud of darkness had formed just as the snake died, and that he couldn't enter it, no matter how hard he tried.

The two men continued their travel until they reached a quiet area where they could rest. There Gladio told Cor about his encounter with the Blademaster.

"The Blademaster isn't here to train you," Cor told him when he finished. "He's here to test you. He won't go easy on you just because you joined the Crownsguard."

"So, no mercy for newbies like me," Gladio smirked, but soon he dropped it. "So what… the weak aren't worthy of serving as Shield?"

"In his eyes, the weak aren't worthy of living. All of them are fools, punished for aspiring beyond their station. I was a fool back then, too… and I was punished."

"But you weren't killed. Maybe you weren't worthy of serving as Shield, but he must've seen you as worthy of living."

"Maybe he did, maybe he didn't," Cor said cryptically, and didn't speak anymore.

Once Gladio was rested enough they broke camp and continued their way through the cave. The path ahead was plagued with both wandering souls and daemons that the two warriors dispatched quickly, and the only concern on Cor's mind was that their enemies tired out Gladio before his duel with the Blademaster. However, the young man was wise enough to his strength and still beat his adversaries.

Just like during his own trial, Gladio had to face three different enemies before seeing the Blademaster. It was a way to ensure only the very best would face him. After each battle he felt the new powers coursing through his veins, and wondered if Noct felt the same each time he claimed a weapon from his ancestors.

While they were resting after the first trial, on which he had to slain Enkidu, a winged beast, Gladio asked Cor about Clarus.

"My father never undertook that Trial of Gilgamesh, did he?"

"No. You wanna know why?"

"I do. I mean, it can't be because he was scared, right?"

"Not of the Trial. He was scared of failing as leader of the Crownsguard… and as Shield of the King. He couldn't leave His Majesty alone, weakened by the Wall as he was. After all, what good is a Shield with no one to protect? What about you?" Cor asked. "Worried about leaving Your Majesty alone?"

"A little, but I'm gonna do what's right for me like my father did what was right for him."

When Gladio passed the second Trial against Innanduru, a daemon inhabiting the walls of the cave, a shapeless voice resounded in their heads while they made their way to the third Trial.

"Thousands set foot on these grounds," said the voice. "All of them fools, unprepared for the dangers lurking within. They all meet, with the same fate… as you will."

"I don't think so," Gladio replied.

"Think what you may, but I know otherwise. The Lucis you call home is nothing like the Lucis I once served. Your age has forgotten the horrors of war, coddled by the king and drunk off the complacency of peace. No Shield worthy of defending the True King could be born from such depravity."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

That was just a trick, Gladio told himself. Mind games to make him falter. But Gilgamesh didn't know how stubborn Gladiolus Amicitia could be.

Just before reaching the third and final Trial against Humbaba, the Iron Giant, it was Cor the one who recounted his younger years while they rested at camp.

"Never thought I'd make my way back to the Tempering Grounds."

"You said it's been thirty years. Were you as immortal then as you are now?"

"If you wanna know, I'll talk," he said.

Cor Leonis never spoke about his past or his private life. That he was willing to share anything about his younger years

"The Blademaster… what was he like?"

"I don't remember much… except for those eyes," for the first time since Gladio knew Cor, the older man looked haunted by the memories. "They pierced my heart and peered right into my soul. It was like he knew my every move even before I did. Try as you may, there's no fooling those eyes."

"We'll see about that," Gladio smirked.

Cor was silent from then on. After Gladio defeated Humbaba and acquired its power, they rested one last time before seeing the Blademaster. The young Amicitia was full of confidence, but the marshal saw that he had also learned to be prudent when asking the older man for advice.

"Well, what about you?" Gladio said. "I wanna know what was going through your head back then."

"You that interested in me?"

"I mean, you were a lot younger than I am."

"And a lot brasher, too, if you can believe it. Wouldn't listen to a single word anyone said. I thought I was invincible," the marshal said, his blue eyes lost in the bonfire. "No one could stop me… until he cut me down to size. I was cast out in defeat, my hubris laid bare for all to see. You really are immortal, they said… and it stuck."

"That's rough… Still, you made it back alive… something no one else had ever done… and I respect that."

Cor said nothing to that. It was true that he came back, but the humiliation he felt those days was something he would never forget. With the passing of time he tried to understand the Blademaster's logic, and guessed that perhaps a defeat was what Cor needed to keep learning, since it's in defeat when one meets the hardest challenges.

On their way to the encounter with Gilgamesh, Gladio could hear the mysterious voice again.

"Come here to die, have you?"

"You looking to die again?"

"You amuse but do not impress. You lack his conviction."

"Whose?"

"He who traversed these caves some thirty years ago. Turning a deaf ear to our wails and wishes, he proceeded unfazed, eyes ever forward."

So Cor Leonis had made an impression on these souls, after all. It was difficult to imagine him as a brash young man. He must have been a handful back in the day. He looked back at the marshal, but he made no sign of having heard the voices.

Reaching a wall of stone, Cor made Gladiolus step aside. Planting his feet firmly on the ground, the marshal raised his katana and presented it. As if it was a command, the wall parted and the path was clear.

"Clarus would have tried to stop you, you know… just like he tried to stop me all those years ago."

"How come?"

"Because one aspiring to the role of King's Shield can stake his life for none but his liege… not even for himself."

The marshal turned to him, fixing a meaningful glance on him.

"Do you dare risk all for naught in return? His words stayed with me. And he was right: I barely made it back with nothing to show for it."

"So, you gonna stop me?"

"No, I won't. But I will warn you one last time of the danger you're about to face… just like your father warned me. Once you set foot through that door, there's no turning back… and no one to help you if you fall. One false step, and it may prove your last."

"I'll be fine," he simply said, walking past the marshal. "Maybe I'll come back with a souvenir."

"Just come back alive. Be safe, Gladio."

The path to the duel grounds was clear of any daemon or lost soul. Suddenly the cave opened to reveal a chasm, with a natural rock bridge connecting the two halves. Gladiolus could see the whole bridge strewn at each side with swords driven into the hard rock, as silent testimonies of all the failed aspirants. He walked slowly amongst that graveyard to the center of the bridge. There it was the Blademaster, waiting for him.

"I'm here," the Shield announced.

"Brandishing your brute force?"

"Yeah. Let's see if you can handle it."

The souls he had acquired gave him strength and the ability to parry and stop Gilgamesh's attacks. Nevertheless, the Blademaster was more powerful than Gladio could have predicted. The previous encounter had been a mere test, and now he was going for the kill.

"You only delay the inevitable, O Unworthy One. Look how you tremble!"

"I ain't afraid of you."

"With every passing second, the fear in your heart grows greater still!"

"So what do I do? Just roll over and die?"

"Blind reliance on strength alone reveals your weakness of will," Gilgamesh lowered his sword for a moment and glanced around. "Countless disappointments met their end here, and so shall you!"

"No," said Gladio, preparing himself for the upcoming attack. "I didn't come here to die. I came here to prove to you I'm worthy!"

Gilgamesh's words had fueled him further. His attacks became stronger, but he also began to measure his timing. The Blademaster was powerful but also graceful on his movements, something Gladio had never been, and he switched his fighting styles with an astounding ease. Nevertheless, Gladiolus worn his opponent out, and, as he found at long last an opening at the Blademaster's left, he put all his might on the blow. However, a ghostly light appeared, and Gilgamesh stopped the attack with a phantasmagorical hand. Gladio drew his weapon back with a gasp.

"You are strong… yet so long as fear binds your heart, the power you possess is wasted on you."

As the Blademaster said this, he looked as his now appeared hand. He dismissed the long sword, and summoned a long katana, the longest Gladio had ever seen. As Gilgamesh took a fighting stance, wielding his weapon two-handed, Gladio understood that the real fight was about to start.

"I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve, too," Gladio murmured. "Ain't no way I'm backing down now!"

But he had a hard time even dodging the attacks. He raised his shield and ducked, but little he could do as Gilgamesh's katana sung in the air.

It was with great effort that he could bring the fight to a stall, and with even greater effort, born from his desperation, that he slowly got the upper hand.

Gilgamesh parried a low blow and, with a flicker of his wrist, he slashed from side to side. Gladio dodged just in time, and felt the blade dangerously near his eyes.

The sun had set, and the light from the crystal structures surrounding the bridge gave the scene an unnatural feeling. Gladio didn't notice anything. He felt nothing, save the rushing of adrenaline. All his senses were in the fight and his rival, knowing that one fraction of a second would be enough for him to die.

At long last, Gilgamesh seemed to falter, and it was time for Gladio to deliver a powerful attack with all his might.

"I kneel before no man!" he yelled, as he delivered his blow.

Gilgamesh wobbled and fell to his knees. The fight was over.

It was when Gladio could catch his breath that he noticed the cut on his forehead. He chuckled, feeling it with his fingers. There was another one crossing his torso. The Blademaster's sword was so sharp it hadn't drawn blood.

"Not the souvenir I had in mind," Gladio said. He then looked at the Blademaster. "It took me a while, but I realized something: you're right… I am afraid. Afraid of accepting the fact that maybe I'm not cut out for the job I'm expected to do. But hey, at least I'm not walking away empty-handed. I'd better get going. I may be all muscle and no mettle, but I'm gonna keep protecting Noct the only way I know how."

The Blademaster chuckled, getting to his feet.

"Spoken like a true Shield of the King. Fear and doubt beget death alone. He who averts his gaze from his own faults cannot himself a true Shield call, but you… having made peace with your inner self… have proven you are worthy. The chosen King should be so fortunate as to have a man like yourself serving at his side."

"You mean…?"

Gilgamesh raised his katana again, but this time he presented it to Gladiolus.

"And with this glaive, I entrust my power to you."

When he approached, Gladio could have a closer look at the katana. It was a beautiful work of art, not as old as the Blademaster, but definitely from well before Gladio's time. It wasn't only the superb craftsmanship what caught his eye, however: wrapped around the guard was a 108 beads rosary, and the symbol of the Crownsguard adorned it.

"Where did you…?"

"Taken from the young man who impressed me with his strength of will. It was with this very blade he stole from me my arm."

"But… I can't accept this."

"If he still walks among the living, a man of his mettle will have doubtless transcended attachment to mere material possessions."

Gladiolus smirked. That old scoundrel could wield a six-foot blade at fourteen. Clarus didn't exaggerate when he said that Cor was something else.

"You're probably right. In that case, don't mind if I do."

"Now, hasten forth… With mind unclouded by doubt and will unmoved by fear," Gilgamesh then gazed at the last lights of the day. "The Last King of Lucis is ill fit to fight without his Shield."

Gladio nodded, suddenly feeling as if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"Thanks again," he said, turning away with his rewards.

Cor was pacing back and forth where they had parted ways. His frown changed to a gesture of surprise when he heard Gladio's heavy footsteps.

"You made it," he almost exclaimed.

"Sure did."

"And so quickly. I'm impressed."

"Brought this back with me," Gladio presented the katana to Cor. "Figured you might get a kick out of it."

The marshal hadn't noticed it, and now he simply smiled with the long-forgotten memories the blade brought back.

"I wondered where I put that thing," he joked, still gazing at the blade, and then he looked at Gladio, understanding that he was offering him the sword. "Keep it. Makes a better souvenir than that scar."

It took them the whole night to walk out of the cave and when they did, the sun was high in the sky. The breeze was fresh and comforting after the stagnant atmosphere of the Tempering Grounds, and it didn't reek of rotten flesh.

"Y'know," Gladio mentioned off handedly. "He mentioned he lost his arm in battle with a real hot-heated young lad back in the day."

"That so?"

"Whoever it was left a lasting impression on him. Talked about how the guy had the strongest will he'd ever seen."

"Takes more than will to complete the trial. You need to wield your weapon with a primal finesse. If you fail to prove your might, you get cast out empty-handed."

"I dunno. He didn't seem to think the guy would let it bother him. Said the guy's too old to care about material things anymore… if he's still alive."

They parted ways when they reached the Crow's Nest, but not before Cor shared with him some final thoughts.

"I hope you feel more confident in light of your success today. Few men can lay claim to such accomplishment… not even Cor the Immortal."

"Yeah, but I didn't earn myself a badass nickname like he did," at that, Cor couldn't suppress a smile. "Still, I'm glad I went through with it. I can finally say I'm truly ready to fulfill my duty."

"Good."

"Well, I guess this Shield better mosey on back to his King. Wouldn't want him to get scared without me."