I do not own Legend of Dragoon or any of the characters.
Ultimate Magician
Cade watched in silence as the Stardust shone. Martel's wish was simple. Happiness and a bright future for her daughter. And as the light faded, her daughter's skin began to regain its color rapidly. Her eyes fluttered slightly before she began to look around. After a moment, she pushed herself up, looking around at the people gathered around the bed.
"Lil!" Martel breathed, one hand covering her mouth in case she began to cry.
"I...I had a strange dream," Lil said tiredly. "There was a woman. She said, 'I'll give you happiness.' Isn't it strange? I'm already happy now. I've got my ma, and my baby brother. That's happy enough, isn't it?"
Martel all but flung herself at Lil, squeezing her tightly. Lil complained that she couldn't breathe, but Martel was too excited to let go. Finally, she did pull back, but just as she did, something clattered to the floor, skidding across it to Cade. He frowned, kneeling and picking up the small black stone with tiny white flecks like a chunk of the night sky.
"Stardust?" Cade asked, frowning. "Did we miscount?"
"Maybe instead of being expended and disappearing, they were teleported somewhere else in the world," Meru guessed.
"And one stayed here," Cade said, pocketing the stone. "Makes sense."
"Please, take this," Martel said, holding out a small, spherical stone. "It's not much, but this is all I have to give you as thanks."
"You don't have to-" Dart began.
Cade snatched the stone, his mouth falling open as he stared at it. It was black but glowed with a faint red glow, and from it, Cade could sense an ocean of Wingly Magic.
"This is..." Cade trailed off.
"The Vanishing Stone," Rose breathed.
"That's the Vanishing Stone?" Meru asked. "The one thing in the whole world that can block Faust's magic?"
"Yeah," Cade nodded, staring at it. "Thank you Martel. You don't know how helpful this is."
"Well, I'm glad it could help," Martel said.
They all thanked and congratulated her, then headed outside and back to their ride.
"Okay," Dart said. "So we stop Melbu Frahma, then we deal with Faust."
Cade hesitated, staring at the Vanishing Stone. "We may not survive stopping Melbu Frahma."
"We may not survive dealing with Faust," Rose pointed out.
"If we don't stop Melbu Frahma, the God of Destruction is revived," Dart said. "If we don't deal with Faust, there might, maybe be another war between humans and Winglies, someday. I think it's a pretty easy decision. We stop Melbu Frahma first."
"We need to stop Faust," Cade said. "I understand the difference in stakes, but we're more likely to die fighting Melbu Frahma than Faust. But if we die fighting Frahma, no one will be left who can stop Faust."
Dart glanced at him, then around at the others. "If we take too long fighting Faust, we lose our chance to stop Frahma at Mayfil."
"He has a point about Faust," Meru said. "And it's not far from Zenebatos. We could go there first and as long as we're quick, it shouldn't take us long to get back to Zenebatos after."
"We may not have that much time," Albert said.
"We're wasting more debating about it," Rose said. "Faust won't do anything yet. We need to stop Melbu Frahma now."
"You mean we need to save Zieg now," Cade corrected.
"If we can," Rose said. "If not, so be it. The God of Destruction cannot be born."
Cade was silent for a long few minutes before nodding. "Alright. I'll drop you all off at Zenebatos, then go after Faust myself."
"You're insane," Rose said. "He'll tear you apart."
"Maybe," Cade admitted. "But I won't know unless I try."
"I'll go with him," Meru said. "If anyone should stop Faust from starting another war against humans, it should be Winglies."
Dart hesitated, then sighed, nodding. "Alright. You two will deal with Faust, then join us in Mayfil."
They both nodded and they all climbed onto Coolon.
Cade watched the others all disappear through the teleporter before turning back to his and Meru's ride. He had tried to convince her to go with them, but she was having none of it. He climbed up beside her and Coolon turned, flying toward Flanvel rapidly. Cade stared ahead of them as they raced through the sky.
"We can win," Meru said. "We can beat him."
"No, we can't," Cade said. "You should have gone with them."
Meru shook her head. "I'm not leaving my best friend to die."
Cade sighed, nodding. "Well, I suppose my vision was wrong. I'm going to die fighting Faust. I'll never be around when the others fight the God of Destruction."
Meru nodded. "They can do it. They can save the world."
Cade nodded mutely. After a few more minutes, they had arrived and they both extended their wings, lifting off of Coolon.
"Go to Mayfil," Cade said. "We probably won't be needing another ride, but the others might need you."
Coolon turned and flew away instantly, and Cade and Meru turned back to Flanvel. They flew down to the entrance and headed inside, Faust instantly sending Cade feedback to acknowledge his presence. They quickly travelled through the teleporters to the tower inside where they fought Lloyd, but stopped at the bottom. To their right was another teleporter they hadn't taken before. They walked over to it, both drawing their weapons, and after a moment, the light faded, leaving them in a small round room with a white floor and a teleporter set into the center of it. As they walked forward, there was a flash of light and Faust appeared before them. He had a white robe with gold down the middle, a long purple cape, and a tall white hat with a blue gemstone in the front. He had a bushy white beard that nearly reached his waist, entirely white eyes, bushy white eyebrows, and was holding a long, black staff with a blue sphere set into the top with the staff's wood wrapping around it. His wings, however, gave Cade pause. They were a bright, florescent orange, and spread out to his sides at a length that would drag on the ground if they extended downward.
"Faust," Cade said.
"Abomination," Faust said. "This is my tower. Leave now and I'll allow you to live."
"Sorry," Cade said, holding the Vanishing Stone out. "We don't have that option."
The stone flashed and the Faust before them recoiled before fading from existence. They both walked to the teleporter and Cade glanced at her.
"Are you ready for this?" Cade asked.
"Not hardly," Meru said. "But we have to do this."
Cade nodded and used his magic to activate the teleporter. They passed through another maze of teleporter rooms quickly, soon reaching a a chamber with a round pillar in the center with a short stone bridge reaching to the top of it. Two other bridges stretched out to the pillar's top from two other teleporters both both had long-since crumbled from time's wear. They walked across the bridge to the pillar, looking around. Cade looked down over the edge, seeing the pillar itself had worn away almost to nothing, and that the tower stretched into darkness below them.
"Dead end?" Meru asked.
"No," Cade said, extending his wings. "Faust is a Wingly. He's below us."
Meru nodded, extending her own wings. Just as they lifted off of the pillar, the top of it broke free, tumbling down the side of it. They glanced at each other before slowly following it down into the darkness. After a long while, they landed on the floor of the tower, on the slightly-sloped top of the pillar, which seemed to have cratered the floor of Flanvel so perfectly that it almost replaced it. Just as they landed, Faust appeared before them in a flash of light.
"You truly are desperate to be killed by me," Faust said.
"You've lived long enough," Cade said. "You are a reminder of a history better left to the past."
"You believe killing me will make Winglies equals with humans?" Faust scoffed.
"No," Cade said. "But without you, there will be no one who can lead the Winglies into another war against humans."
Faust narrowed his eyes. "Very well. Come, then. Let us see how much power the half-breed has managed to steal in his life."
Cade readied himself just as more presences appeared in his senses. He spun, seeing four beings in black cloaks and skull masks, or maybe actual skulls, sweeping into the room from the door behind Faust, to Cade's right. They moved to form a box around Faust and Cade felt Faust's power skyrocket.
"You created living power amplifiers," Cade said.
"Indeed," Faust said, raising his staff, the cloaked figures spreading around the room. "They're very helpful."
Faust hurled his staff into the air, the world around them going dark suddenly as Faust pulled them into an alternate dimension with his magic. Cade narrowed his eyes, looking up as he sensed magic building above them. Then, the clouds that had filled the air above them parted and a massive sphere of compressed, blood-red flames began to fall. Cade turned his hand to the side, curling it into a fist. Red energy flashed toward the sphere before the usual barrier surrounded it. However, a moment later, the barrier exploded, the fireball plummeting even faster than before as Faust cackled.
"Did you really think that would be enough!?" Faust taunted. "A powerful spell cast by a pathetically weak magic wielder is still weak!"
The sphere dropped fast and Meru transformed as she and Cade raced to fly around it, taking advantage of the dimension being wider than the tower, which was smaller around than the fireball. They escaped the impact, but the resulting explosion still sent them both spinning and flipping through the air. A moment later, they crashed into opposite sides of the tower. Cade grit his teeth, focusing, then burst out of the crater in the wall before streaking toward Faust. Faust deflected his blade with his staff before spinning around Cade. A second later, he swung it and sent a ball of fire the size of Cade's head exploding into Cade's back. He bounced twice before flipping and stopping himself. He swiped his hand quickly, icicles appearing around Faust before Faust slammed his staff into the ground. A flash of light shot off of the jewel at the top and shattered the icicles, ending the spell.
"Pathetic!" Faust cackled, spinning and stepping around Meru's hammer, then slamming his staff into her side, hurling her and sending a purple fireball after her.
Cade rocketed forward, but just as he did, Faust swung his staff out to the side without even looking at him and they entered an alternate dimension again, hundreds of meteors the size of Cade's torso beginning to rain at him from above. He swore, avoiding what he could and using his sword to deflect what he couldn't. Then, just as he could see the end of the meteors, a bolt of lightning flashed down, exploding into his back and blasting him into the ground. As soon as he hit, all of the meteors' trajectory suddenly shifted and they fell directly toward him, crashing down one after another and rapidly forming a mountain of rubble and boulders.
"Cade!" Meru shrieked.
Suddenly, a massive construct, like a giant made of lightning, appeared over him, raising a gigantic, lightning hammer. Meru shot forward, only for a ball of purple flames to explode against her side, hurling her away. Then, the giant swung, its hammer exploding down through the pile of rubble before erupting into an explosion with lightning flying through it, Cade being flung into the air by the blast, his body twitching and contorting as he sailed through the air, electricity still arcing over his body. Then, Faust swung his staff in a circle above himself, a massive vortex of clouds roaring to life above him, surging forward as Faust brought his staff down to point at Cade. As it raced forward, dust and debris began to be sucked up into it, and when Cade was pulled in, the debris began to crash into him as blades of wind magic tore into his body. Finally, he was launched out of the top, spinning slightly as he plummeted back to the ground. His back impacted first, cracking the stone floor before he bounced and rolled down the incline toward the wall of the tower, only to get caught on a chunk of boulder.
"And with this, it's finished!" Faust cackled, just as ice began to form around Cade.
It grew upward into three pillars, then outward from one side of each, connecting them in a circle. A field of rainbow-colored light formed in the circle of it before circles of white light appeared in it, each as big around as Cade's head. Then, just as each began to release a spike of ice, Meru shot into the middle of the attack, covering Cade with her body. The ice spears that hit her shattered on contact, but the force of the strikes still made her shriek over and over in pain. Then, a massive chunk of ice shaped like a meteor with a sharp pint on the bottom fell, smashing through the barrier roof of the ice monument, then slammed down on top of Meru. The impact sent blood spraying from her mouth and sent out a concussion equal to that of an explosion, shattering the ice monument and hurling Meru and Cade away. Both of them bounced across the floor into the wall of the tower before crumpling to the floor, Meru slipping out of her Dragoon form.
Faust laughed as he walked toward Cade, ignoring Meru. "You're incredibly lucky. Thanks to that child's intervention, you survived. However, she is now on the verge of dying herself, even with the magic in her armor negating the magic itself. It would seem the spell's physical force was just too much for her. And you..." He laughed. "You're slipping away as we speak!" He laughed. "Such foolish arrogance to believe you could stand before me." He slammed a kick into Cade. "You should have just rolled over and died like the filthy abomination you are."
Cade let out a small noise, like an attempt to breathe through a crushed throat, and his arm dragged across the ground slowly before clasping Faust's leg. Faust kicked his arm off, then knelt, picking up Cade by the throat and lifting him into the air.
"You filthy piece of trash," Faust growled. "You just don't know when to quit, do you?"
"No," Cade croaked. "I don't."
His hands snapped up, latching onto Faust's forearm just as his wings burst into existence, his magic yanking hard at Faust's own. Magic particles flowed from Faust's wings along his arm, then along Cade's arm and throat to his own, tinting light blue as they did. Faust yelped in surprise before yanking back. He resisted the urge to hurl Cade away, instead pulling harder. For a moment, the particles froze, quivering in place, then began to flow back into Faust, this time bringing Cade's own magic with it. Cade shouted in agony as every cell in his body began to shriek, his wings beginning to shrink rapidly. He pulled harder, but the weaker his magic power grew, the stronger Faust's grew, and the faster the magic was stolen.
His eyes squeezed closed, tears running down his cheeks. He racked his brain for the memory. Just once more. He need to see her smile once more. Then, even having failed so miserably wouldn't be so bad. But the memory was missing. In fact, all of his memories were hazy, and growing fainter. A sob began to build in his throat. It wasn't fair. He just wanted to see a smile.
Suddenly, Faust shrieked in agony, the flow of magic halting entirely. As if on pure instinct, he pulled. Yanked. He fought tooth and nail, and within a split second, he had his magic back, now pulling Faust's. Faust roared in rage, spinning and hurling him away. Cade waited until he'd cratered the wall to open his eyes. Faust was staggering forward, blood pouring profusely from his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears as a result of having almost a quarter of his horrifyingly massive power stolen. But the reason for his first scream and his distraction was the rapier impaled through his gut from behind. Suddenly, blood red energy rolling along his body, then along the sword before firing up to Rose. A moment later, a beam of now blue energy shot to the floor of the tower, the entirety of which shone before Cade and Meru began to shine along with it, their wounds healing partially, if only partway. As the light faded, Rose's sword returned to her and Cade stood as Faust drove the end of his staff into the floor.
"You...insufferable...VERMIN!" Faust roared, spinning and swiping his staff and arm both in a massive string of glyphs and sigils.
Cade instantly shot forward, grabbing Rose as he passed her just before a trail of spells ranging from ice spikes to orbs of darkness, to boulders firing small pebbles at speeds high enough to shatter bones, to a rain of fireballs chased them. Explosions of scorching light began to go off around them, burning them every so often, and then there was the same massive cyclone spell chasing them, grabbing all of the projectiles and scattering them indiscriminately around the room. Then, just as all of those spells finally faded, the same massive lightning construct from before appeared, swiping down at Cade and Rose from above. Cade hurled Rose aside just in time to take the entire blow himself. As he flew into the air from the explosion, meteors began to explode down on him again. As it ended, he shoved a boulder out of the way with his left arm, causing a collapse that crushed his arm but freed him from the boulders.
He tumbled down the remains of the pile, leaving a trail of shattered armor behind himself, his torso now bare of armor and covered in bruises, burns, and a few bits of protruding bone on his left shoulder and chest. He raised his eyes to Faust just as he doubled over, coughing and spewing blood, all four of his living power amplifiers collapsing into dust.
"You parasite!" Faust snarled, slinging a ball of purple flames into Rose as she reached him, launching her away. "Just die already!"
"My thoughts exactly!" Cade growled, swiping his uninjured arm in an "X" which shone in the air before flashing and vanishing.
A moment later, a matching "X" appeared below Faust. His eyes widened, but just as his head snapped up, the spell struck. A massive beam of blindingly white light magic exploded down on him, completely blocking him from view, though his scream of agony echoed above the roar of the spell for a few moments before going silent. Then, as the spell faded, it left the room, which had been brighter than daylight, in darkness again, a cloud of ash hanging in the air in the center of the room, Faust completely absent.
Cade sighed, dropping onto the ground again as his consciousness swam between alertness and oblivion. Finally, pain assaulted him for a few moments, threatening to drive him into oblivion, only to draw him back fully into awareness. He looked around slowly, seeing that his body was fully healed, and Rose and Meru were kneeling to either side of him, both holding an empty potion bottle.
"Are you alright?" Meru asked.
"I feel like shit," he said, pushing himself into a seated position. "But other than being sore, I'm healed."
Meru nodded, sighing. "Good."
Cade glanced at Rose, only for her to slap him, hard.
"You idiot!" Rose snapped. "I told you that you couldn't beat him! You almost got yourself killed!"
"Thank you for sav-"
She slapped him again. "You have nothing to say to me! Nothing!"
She shoved herself to her feet and walked up a nearby chunk of broken stone to a teleporter and left. Meru sighed, helping Cade to his feet and they walked to the teleporter together, the teleporter taking them all the way to the entrance of the tower. Once they got outside, they found Coolon waiting with Rose on top of him. They both climbed on and Coolon took off. As they were passing over the Death Frontier, Cade, whose strength had begun to rapidly regenerate once the bit of Faust's power he stole was fully assimilated, dropped off of Coolon and flew down to the desert. Coolon stopped, but just as he turned to go back for him, Cade landed on his back again with a stack of Scorpion plates of varying sizes.
"I need a new set of armor," Cade explained simply.
Rose narrowed her eyes and turned away while Cade quickly used his magic to blacken the plates and quickly fused them into a new cuirass like the one he'd replaced with his Wingly Armor. However, this time, in place of the jewel from his Wingly armor, he embedded the one piece of Stardust he'd kept in the center of the chest, the stone glowing faintly and strengthening the armor and enchantments past what his Wingly Armor was. He also formed himself a set of Scorpion plate vambraces, using the crystals from the Wingly Armor's vambraces in them. Then, once he was done, he settled in to wait silently for them to reach Mayfil.
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