Queen of Souls
By Soul Hunter
Chapter Nine
She had always bragged that adventure was her middle name. Ever since second grade, Captain Andrea Frost of the Esthar Kashkabald Army Outpost had been showing tremendous potential in the field of military tactical operations that her parents just can't help but enroll her to Trabia Garden. And living true to form, she excelled in almost every field that included personnel mobilization, espionage, surveillance, cartography, weaponry and explosives, hand-to-hand combat and logistics, among others. Her leadership skills had been cited as exemplary, as she had that uncanny ability to invoke unqualified loyalty from her charges under the grimmest of circumstances. Currently nineteen years of age, Captain Frost held the renown of one of the youngest senior officers in the Esthar Army, a reputation rivaled only by the late Geraldine Rivera, deceased commander of the ill-fated Squad Pi Alpha and the one Frost emulated.
Being a glutton for action, Captain Frost adamantly refused desk duty after the last Sorceress War. She had never seen herself one to be branded as a pencil pusher when she knew that even in peace, there was still much to be done for a soldier of her caliber. Her commanding officers couldn't help admiring her addiction to adventure after she successfully justified the necessity to station infantry units across the vast expanse of Esthar and Centra continents, what with the monster brought by the last Lunar Cry spreading like wildfire across the territories. Subsequently, an outbreak of Abyss worms and Chimeras led her to being stationed in the Kashkabald unit where she commanded a fairly small infantry and panzer force in a record breaking campaign, crushing the monster outbreak in just one week. Her exploits had achieved such nigh-legendary status that her methods had since become standard curriculum in the military academy she previously left in favor of the Esthar army.
A month ago, Andrea Frost was complaining to her second-in-command how bored she had become. Esthar and Galbadia had just completed a treaty that seemed rock-solid, and past conflicts between the two superpowers had been relegated to a memory. And monster outbreaks had been brought under control due in no small part to her competence. It was almost ludicrous that she felt like sulking for having no one else to fight with. She'd consider hunting for Ruby Dragons in Lenown Plains, but her superiors refused to allow her to abandon her post.
But that was a month ago. A few days previous, her face lit up when General Ruth Pischke of Camp Tetsuo ordered her to mobilize her forces in preparation for a possible confrontation with the entity that had been wreaking havoc across Centra continent. She readily assigned the duty of evacuating endangered settlements to her assistant while she started drawing up plans for tracking and eventually battling the enemy. Her face was flush with excitement while looking at the satellite feed of the creature's predicted path based on the position of the villages that were most likely to attract its attention.
Now, she was dumbfounded. Carefully scrutinizing the map she drew up, Captain Frost couldn't figure out the entity's behavior. She had just noticed the other towns lying close to its path that went unharmed, as if it intentionally ignored them. And she had grown tired of calling up the intelligence division to confirm if the sat-photos they sent her were accurate. But then, there could be no mistake. She herself had visited some of these towns and therefore, could never doubt their existence. Then why did the soul devourer ignore these towns while in the process deviating enough from a straight-line course to turn his attention to others that she deemed less likely to be targeted settlements? What was so special about those particular villages?
Unwittingly, Captain Frost wished Deputy Commander Quistis Trepe were with her. She knew the outstanding SeeD operative from numerous missions they participated in together. For all her vaunted expertise, the army officer had to acknowledge her glaring lack of detective skills, something that the popular Balamb Garden instructor possessed in abundance. If Ms. Trepe were here, she thought, she would have solved the mystery in five minutes flat.
Which brought her to another line of thought. Included in General Pischke's briefing was the notice that SeeDs were en route to offer assistance. It had been close to twelve hours since she received the communiqué. So where are those SeeDs?
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"Excuse me?"
"I said, I'm one hundred and thirty one years old."
She looked at him quizzically. It was no secret that Quistis was perhaps the most loved figure in Balamb Garden, and in more ways than one. One of the perks of her popularity was having an army of admirers on her tail almost 24/7. And as such, she had already heard probably every pick-up line that can possibly be conceived. Of course, she seldom took any of them seriously, since among other things, her stature had rendered most of her male admirers rather intimidated. But still, she frequently got a kick from hearing all those lines meant to capture her fancy through humor.
She didn't know whether the statement Hunter uttered was inherently ingenious or just plain prosaic. But it was enough to elicit a fond laughter from her.
"What?" Hunter snapped out. Wary of offending him, Quistis tried to apologize in the midst of her amused disposition.
"I'm sorry, Hunter. But that has got to be one of the most original I've ever heard. Even Irvine would never think of something like that, and he's supposed to have written the instructional manual on pick-up lines."
"Oh, so you think this is all just some mundane blabbering to appease you?" He shot back. Quistis subsequently stopped laughing upon noting the seriousness of his facade.
"You You're not kidding?" She asked, her amused expression transforming gradually into a shade of puzzlement.
"Nope."
The instructor gazed at the intruder intently, as if measuring the credibility in his tone. She couldn't possibly believe his claim of being older than what his gentle face displayed. In her assessment, he may be older than her but not by that big a margin. He wouldn't even pass for a thirty-year old, she estimated. One hundred and thirty-one?
He saw the nagging question in her face. And much as he refused to do so, Hunter knew that he had come to a point from where he could never back out of anymore. Some force inside him compelled him to open up to her completely. He had already gone halfway through, so he might as well go all the way.
"The third generation of Hunters that fought the soul devourer was no other than me and the other descendants of the original knights. And they were my friends"
"So what happened?" She asked again, almost dreading his answer as she detected the immense weight in his words.
"I didn't tell you about the enemy's power that made him lord among his clan. What makes this spirit vampire special was his ability to enthrall people. There has to be some special condition in which he did this since an incubus' first instinct towards a human is that of consumption. So I don't know why he'd choose to use this facet of his ability to transform other people into zombies that did his bidding. But he did and"
Quistis thought she heard his voice choke a little. She then immediately guessed why Hunter had turned out alone despite the rather surprising confession that he had friends at some point.
"And the incubus turned your friends into his slaves"
"Yes" He muttered back. "And my my hands were forced. I could have sworn I heard it laughing when I took it upon myself to kill them. I thought that there was no other way to free them from the enthrallment so I killed them myself"
Her heart broke at the sound of his dismal voice.
"I don't know maybe I should have sought other ways to save them but I don't know." He continued somberly. "All I know is after that, my crusade had become personal. When I went after it, I wasn't anymore answering to my destiny. I just wanna slit his throat open and be done with it. But I can't. No matter what I did, it just kept coming back like an unstoppable force of nature."
"So how did you beat it?"
"I didn't. I couldn't. It was only later that the true context of the prophecy was revealed to tell me that I wasn't the one who was supposed to destroy the soul devourer. The dark sage of the lake told me that the chosen one wasn't supposed to come until one hundred years later. And until then, there wasn't anything left to do but to contain the soul devourer's hunger. I devised a plan to bury the entity under the earth. It wasn't destroyed, but at least its powers were held back."
"So if it was already imprisoned what are you doing here? And how come you're still alive after one hundred years?"
"The enemy was smarter than I thought. When the old king summoned it, it planted a fragment of its own essence into the king's. It knew that someday, someone would find a way to exploit its weakness. And in embedding a part of its spirit inside the king's soul, it was assured another lease at life in the off-chance that the king was freed from his prison."
She was puzzled at first, but eventually Quistis came to a realization of her role in the unfolding drama. She couldn't help feeling accountable for the carnage that transpired.
"My goodness, what have we been doing?"
"What do you mean?" Hunter quizzically replied.
"First there was Vesta. After we defeated her, subsequent investigations revealed that the cult who freed her wouldn't have found the back door to accomplish it if we hadn't called upon Diablos from the dark void. Now there's this incubus. One who would still be held in check if we had just left the Brothers alone. Hyne, what in the word have we done?"
She couldn't help thinking about what other plugs' they pulled out to unleash another possible menace. Quistis thought about Bahamut, and how his liberation opened a portal to an underground lair that would have unleashed Ultima Weapon to the world if they hadn't come down to fight it. And to think that they weren't even aware of its existence, with the compulsion to descend its dark crevices born only of pure curiosity. What about Cactuar? Tonberry? What manner of horror would come out next as a result of Doomtrain's return to the physical world?
"Hey, don't blame yourself." He gently echoed, kneeling beside Quistis. "I'm sure that whatever happened had been preordained. Besides, I wouldn't have it any other way."
"What do you mean?"
"I knew that it wasn't dead yet, and that if ever someone releases the king from his prison, it would also awaken the incubus and free him from the trap I set. So" He hesitated briefly. " I asked the old sage of the lake to cast a special kind of ice magic on me one that would put me into cryo-sleep. One with a failsafe designed to awaken me once the incubus revives from his hibernation."
"What?" Quistis shot back. She was aware of the old para-technology involving cryo-sleep and its hazards. She knew that even at this time, advocates of its use to medicine were vehemently opposed by those who claimed that it was too unstable for such purposes. Perhaps the only thing it proved itself vital during the last twenty years was the imprisonment of the late despot, Sorceress Adel.
The fact the Hunter had the dangerous procedure applied on him scared her.
"Why in the world would you do something like that?"
Hunter's face hardened with deep indignation.
"I I wanted my revenge."
"H-How?"
"I wanted to be here when the chosen one finally comes. I wanted to see that wretched beast's death in his her hands."
There was so much hatred in his voice, but not something that made Quistis feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, all she sensed in her heart was pity for the man she was starting to regard deeply. She felt the pain in his heart that stemmed not only from seeing his friends' deaths, but more so was aggravated by the truth that it was his own hands that served as their executioner. Hunter was blaming the incubus for their demise, but he was also blaming himself. And only its complete destruction could possibly absolve him from self-reprisal.
"I I'm so sorry" She whispered, tenderly running her hand through his black hair. Closing his eyes, Hunter gently took hold of her hand and brought it to his lips. Quistis felt her heart skip a beat when he kissed her fingers.
"Don't be." He uttered. "I used to think that that was the only purpose why I had to sleep one hundred years to reach this point. Vengeance. But no it wasn't."
Her heart drummed intensely while waiting for his next words.
"Perhaps it was fate." Hunter gently voiced out. "Perhaps I was meant to continue living for a hundred years so I could so I can meet you."
Quistis felt an onrush of deep joy that struck her being with tremendous impact. But this gladness was so immense it scared her. In all practicality, Hunter was a stranger to her, and yet she didn't know why she felt this way as if she had known him all her life. Her rational thinking held her back despite the screaming desire to just pull him close to her and hold him. She couldn't comprehend why everything was moving so fast.
"Hunter I I don't know what to say"
"Just just say you'll have me"
Hunter spoke with fear in his voice. However, his decision had been made. No longer did he dread the prospect of being turned away. All he knew was the intense longing to share the remaining of his life with her if only she'd have him. The adoring look in his eyes subsequently sent the message that this was meant to be. Quistis gazed into those eyes, and her heart heard their longing whispers.
There was now no mistaking in her mind that nothing was governed by chance. There was no denying the reason of that still voice bellowed from her heart and uttered by her hopeful lips. The words ushered in by destiny's hands that compelled a warrior from a century past to suspend the beating of his heart so that one day, that same life-giving rhythm would hum in unison with the one whose echoes were meant to share one song. A song heralding their souls' union.
The lyrics echoed in her mind. All it said was
" I will"
The irritating reverberations of the Ragnarok's radar echoed before her words did, and Quistis had to shake off her annoyance while turning her attention to the control panel. However, her displeasure turned to alarm upon seeing a pair of signals fast approaching the smallest of the concentric circles outlined on the radar face.
"Oh shoot! We've got incoming! Multiple bogeys approaching fast from the starboard side." She bellowed instinctively as if there was a co-pilot awaiting her command. Hunter quickly turned to his left and saw two fireballs rushing toward them.
"Dammit, it knows we're here!"
"Hunter, hold on! We're out of countermeasures so I'd have to try and outmaneuver them manually."
"I'm all the countermeasure you need." He blurted out. "Where can I step out?"
"What? What do you mean 'step out'?"
"I can't counterattack from inside this ship. I need to do it from the outside."
"Hunter, are you insane? We're currently moving at one thousand knots! It'd be suicide!"
"Just trust me, okay? Now where?"
Quistis hesitated for a moment before eventually giving in. She was worried that something might happen to Hunter, as coming out from a speedily moving aircraft wasn't exactly the most sensible thing to do unless he somehow knew how to fly. But something told her that he knew what he was about to do. If anything, so far as she had observed, he was probably one of the most efficient field operatives she had ever known.
"There's an airlock at the aft"
"'Aft'?"
"At the back end of the ship."
"All right, I got it." He quipped before running off. It didn't take long before the instructor saw the indicator light for the airlock starting to blink, indicating that the rear panel had been opened. She then felt the control stick of the Ragnarok staging a resistance as the opened airlock allowed violent winds to blow inside the ship and create a staggering turbulence. She braced her arms mightily in an attempt to keep the dragon ship on a steady course.
Meanwhile, Hunter was wishing he still had his headgear when he stepped out from the airlock. The force of the rushing winds were powerful and would surely have snapped his body in two if it hadn't been for the lifelong, intense training he was subjected to in honing his body and mind to absolute perfection. But even his superior, athletic build was hardly adequate to withstand the wind resistance. He hollered in agony, all the while struggling to focus his attention on the pair of rapidly approaching fireballs.
Carefully pulling out the Twin Jutte, the warrior subsequently crossed the blades with each other. At the moment of contact, the shimmering short swords began to emit thin ribbons of Holy magic that slowly grew in power. The crackling resonance of magical bolts grew more deafening, gradually building up into a white eruption of energy that then blazed violently toward the fireballs. A loud explosion rang out when the Holy attack destroyed the flaming spheres.
But there was no reason to celebrate yet, he thought when he saw six more of the same fireballs coming in from all sides. The incubus did not intend to take prisoners, he thought. And chances are, it already sensed his presence. But that was of little concern now in light of the dreadful tiding. Once again, Hunter crossed his Twin Jutte to generate more Holy energies. However, he realized that there was little time for a full charge as this batch of fireballs was speedier than the last one. He was then forced to release his attack even before charging was completed. It shot out, cutting a spectacular swath in the air en route to meeting the rampaging fiery globules.
The Holy bolts were two weak to cancel out the fireballs. Two slipped past the protective magic nets and continued on their way to the target. Hunter had merely a split second to descend back into the ship, but his body was thrown around like a rag doll when the fireballs made impact.
"Blast it!" Quistis exclaimed as she was jolted by the impact of the fire missiles. Pulling back hard, she tried to regain control of the Ragnarok, only to be horrified when she sensed that the elevator controls weren't responding.
"Oh no, we're going to crash!"
A few thousand feet below, his grin grew wide with jubilation. He still hungered, and yet the famished sensation took a back seat to the immense satisfaction that possessed him. The soul devourer watched in glee as the crimson dragon ship made a trail of black smoke as it plunged headlong toward the sandy plains of western Kashkabald.
He knew his enemy was inside it. He would have wished for a face-to-face confrontation if only to land the final humiliation on the last of his tormentors. But he had more important business to attend to. And the ancient death-bringer would just have to content himself with the perception of his adversary's life coming to an end.
End of Chapter Nine