CHAPTER 30
PHANTOM CRATER
"Well, here we are," Cinna said as he scaled the edge of the crater and pointed downwards. Twilight was fading, and darkness was beginning to creep over the land. A few stars shone faintly overhead. "...Phantom Crater, the resting place of the Phantom Waterfall Temple."
Everyone stood at the mouth of the crater, looking downwards into the huge, rocky expanse. An air of extreme solemnness hung in the air as they looked, their garments flapping mildly in the cold mountain breeze.
"We've come this far..." Rafa (whose leg was fully healed now) said.
"We've slain the 12 Mechannites and obtained the 12 Chinese Zodiac Stones..." Orlandu said.
"We've defeated countless other enemies..." Meliadoul added.
"...Been separated and rejoined..." Rad said.
"Escaped a chain gang," Lavian said.
"And we've sung into a can..." Alicia added.
"We're so close to our goal..." Agrias said. "It's a bit sad the journey will end soon."
"Especially since we have no place to go once it's over," Malak sighed as he hung his head.
"...Let's go find the temple," Alma said, looking up with resolve in her eyes. "Ovelia's waiting for us..."
"Yes, let's go," Ramza said, about to walk into the crater.
"Ramza," Cinna said as he put his hand on the adventurer's shoulder.
"Yeah, Cinna?" Ramza asked as he looked back at his new friend.
Cinna pulled out a soiled sheet of paper from beneath his garments. "This is a song I've been working on for a while now," he said. "I just completed it last night. If something should happen to me... please take it back to Cress in Nazdrubia. He'll know what to do with it."
"All right..." Ramza said as he accepted the paper and stuck it in his pocket. "Let's go, everyone."
The party began to pick their way down the rocky slope, completely unaware of the savage trap set for them by Delita.
"It took a good five minutes, but we got down to the base of the crater," Mustadio said.
"What're you talking about?" Agrias asked. "Through the miracle of writing, we got down here in the blink of an eye."
"Hmmm..." Orlandu hemmed and hawed as he looked around the crater suspiciously.
"Something wrong?" Meliadoul asked. "You're on edge."
"There's something wrong here..." Orlandu said, his eyes narrowing. "I can't quite put my finger on it, but..."
A long whine was heard from behind a bush nearby.
"What was that?!" Beowulf growled, drawing his sword.
"Awww, you blew it for us, Carl!" a soldier yelled as two of them emerged from the bushes.
"That teaches me to eat Mexican," Carl muttered.
"Isn't this obvious?" Reis said. "It's a trap!!!"
"SURPRISE!!!" all of Delita's troops shouted as they emerged from behind rocks and bushes and from under the dirt. Primitive tanks rolled over the hillside and trained their cannons on the adventurers. There were over 1,000 soldiers, with Captain Flite and Delita standing in front of them all.
"...Aw, crap," Cinna said.
"Well, Ramza..." Delita said, walking up to his old friend. "It appears our paths cross again."
"Delita, please stop this," Ramza said. "Why can't we just be friends, like old times?"
Delita peeled the glove off of his left hand and slapped Ramza across the face with it. Ramza was so surprised that he fell down. "Your life of crime ends here, Heretic Ramza," Delita said.
"Funny, I thought you had two soldier grunts," Malak said. "I see only one."
"Yes, where's Admiral Miraz?" Rafa asked.
"...Admiral Miraz was inside the king's carriage when the rocks it was on shattered and the carriage fell. It was dashed to pieces on the rocks below," Captain Flite said, hanging his head for a minute. "He was a fine soldier."
"An accident is forgivable," Delita said as he leered down at Ramza, who was still sitting on the ground with a red hand-shaped mark visible on his cheek. "Killing in cold blood is not."
"..." Ramza said as he stood up.
"...ATTACK!!!" Delita shrieked in an almost inhuman voice. Almost instantly, the sea of soldiers started moving downwards into the crater.
"Oh, crap!" Cinna growled.
"Get ready!" Orlandu yelled.
"If we're gonna die, let's take some of them with us!" Beowulf declared.
The party members threw themselves at the attacking soldiers and began to launch their own assault.
"HOLY EXPLOSION!!!" Orlandu and Agrias yelled at the same time as their sacred blasts sent troops flying left and right.
"SKY DEMON BACK!!!" Malak shouted as his devilish attack took out a few more soldiers.
"STORAGE SPACE!!!" Rafa shouted as her status-inducing spell confused some troops and made them whack one another.
"MBarrier!" Alma yelled as she hurried to cast the spell on each friend as quickly as possible.
"Enough with the kid stuff," Delita yelled. "Ready the tanks!!!"
The huge tanks rolled down the hill and began firing huge volleys of Fire Balls at the group. The explosions knocked the party left and right. Mustadio recovered first.
"So, you stepped up your artillery, huh?!" Mustadio shouted. "It still breaks easily enough! HYAH!"
Mustadio fired a powerful shot from his Blast Gun and one of the tanks exploded. However, The six other tanks continued towards the group with no intention of stopping.
"Take this!" Rad yelled as he buried his Slasher in a Lancer's armor.
"Head Break!!!" Alicia and Lavian shouted as they shattered a Knight's helmet.
"ICEWOLF BITE!!!" Meliadoul cried as the devastating attack ripped the Angel Ring off of a Monk.
"EXP4FLARE!!!" Cloud shouted, casting the mathematical spell. About half of the troops in the crater were knocked on their butts by devastating Flare attacks.
"Flite, kill Ramza!" Delita ordered.
"As you wish," Flite said, leaping at Ramza with Sky Render gleaming gallantly.
"Eeeeaaaaagh!" Ramza shouted as his Chaos Blade appeared and the two warriors began to clash.
"Somebody stop those tanks!!!" Mustadio yelled. "They're heading right for us!"
Suddenly, everyone heard a fierce ROAR. Everyone looked up as Davis's airship appeared over the mouth of the crater. It flew overhead, dropping bombs on the troops below. The tanks exploded, scattering shrapnel everywhere. Davis leaned out the window and gave a thumbs-up to the group before flying away again.
"Thank God for aviation," Agrias sighed.
"I told you it was a good thing!" Mustadio laughed.
"Stop, Flite!" Ramza shouted as he dodged and parried while Flite slashed away at him. "Delita's lying to you!"
"I will hear no one speak ill of the king!" Flite shouted. "AIR SLASH!!!"
The windy blast lifted Ramza up and sent him plummeting down into the dirt at Delita's feet. He slowly began to get up, but Delita stomped on his left hand. Ramza yelled in pain and lurched upwards into a sitting position.
"So ends your little insurrection," Delita said, leering down at Ramza. With one quick motion, he spat on Ramza's shirt and then kicked him backwards. Ramza lay flat on his back as Delita towered over him, his sword ready to bury itself in Ramza's chest.
"You're gonna kill another one, huh, Delita?!"
Everyone looked up and listened for where the voice had come from. Two gigantic searchlights that had been focused on Ramza and Delita now moved to shine on Olan and Balmafula , who were standing up at the top of the crater.
"You think murder is an injustice?" Olan yelled again. "Well, how do you explain THIS?!"
Balmafula threw a corpse down into the crater. It rolled past the stunned soldiers until it stopped at Delita's feet, face-up. It was the body of Admiral Miraz, with Delita's gold-hilted knife still embedded in its rotting stomach.
"My God!" Captain Flite exclaimed. "It cannot be!"
"That's just gross," Mustadio said, leaning over and losing his lunch.
"That's... Delita's knife..." Ramza panted.
"You killed your own Admiral?" Rafa asked. "What kind of a king are you?..."
Whispers began to spread through the troops, and then several volleys of disgusted faces. Delita stood erect, glaring up at Olan and Balmafula.
"Wasn't he one of your finest?" Balmafula yelled. "...And you killed him because he asked you one little question!"
"...SILENCE!!!" Delita yelled. "You lie, woman! Miraz must have... had the knife go through him as he fell. Who are you going to trust: those two prisoners and this band of heretics, or your king?"
"That's not the half of it!" Agrias said as she pushed past Delita and yanked the knife from Miraz's body. There was still a lot of blood on it, so she gave it to Worker No.8. He stuck it in his chest compartment and in a few seconds he had washed it off. Agrias pulled the knife back out and held it up. "Miraz's blood isn't the only one on this knife! See these stains? It's gone through someone else, too. Do you loyal soldiers know who this knife has been in besides your Admiral?!"
"BE QUIET!!!" Delita growled, suddenly forgetting about Ramza and walking towards Agrias. He stopped when he heard a clicking sound. He turned to see Mustadio and Worker No.8 standing on either side, their projectile weapons aimed right at him.
"Let her speak," Mustadio said slowly and plainly.
"Judging by the color of this blood, I'd say it sank into somebody a little more than a few months ago!" Agrias yelled. "Can you think of anyone who died mysteriously in the last few months?!"
The entire crater fell silent except for the howling of the wind.
"...You murdered Queen Ovelia?..." Flite asked the silent and glaring Delita. Flite's eyes narrowed into glowering slits. "You did, didn't you?" he whispered viciously.
Delita stayed silent, aware that if he said anything, Flite might kill him, and one movement would result in being blown to smithereens by Mustadio and Worker No.8.
Slowly, the truth dawned on the Ivalice soldiers, and they dropped their weapons. Delita could feel the heat that every glaring eye in the crater was burning into him.
"You killed our beloved queen!" Flite shouted angrily. "You've brought shame upon my country, my soldiers, and myself by making us take part in this charade! You disgust me! VOID SWORD!!!" Flite swung his mighty Sky Render and Delita was blown backwards. Flite cast Void Sword again and again, and Delita flew backwards over the rocks and dirt again and again. When Flite finally stopped, Delita, face down, leered up at Flite and used his cape to wipe the blood off of his lip. "You don't deserve that cape," Flite growled. "You don't deserve any of those clothes you wear. You don't even deserve to be telling me what to do..."
Delita glared at the officer as Flite raised Sky Render up high in preparation to administer his final blow. Everyone watched breathlessly. Time stood still.
"Captain Flite, stop," Ramza said as he stood up. Surprisingly, everyone quieted when they saw him rise. Captain Flite didn't lower his sword, but he turned to look at Ramza.
"Delita Hyral has done a great injustice to Ivalice," Ramza called out. "He has murdered its rightful leader and has cheated and lied his way into assuming control and sending you all after me. Most people would call for justice to be served-"
The soldiers all roared in agreement. Captain Flite readied his sword again.
"...But in spite of all this," Ramza continued, looking at Delita with sadness mixed with pity in his eyes. "In spite of all this, I still look upon him as my friend. He doesn't deserve death. I know not what the judges of Ivalice will say, but I, for one, will spare his life, and I ask that you all do the same. "
There were various murmurs throughout the crowd.
"Is he serious?" one soldier asked.
"He's got the patience of a saint to put up with that slimebag," another said.
Captain Flite turned to the battalion. "FALL BACK!!!" he yelled. "We will depart for Ivalice in the morning!"
Slowly, the remaining troops turned around and marched back out of the crater. Olan and Balmafula ran down into the crater to greet their friends.
"Father!" Olan yelled as he threw his arms around Orlandu.
"Olan, how good it is to see you again," Orlandu said, returning the hug. "You were very brave to come all this way."
"Balmafula! Nice to see you," Ramza said as he shook the magician's hand.
"Good to see ya, Ramza," Balmafula laughed. "Can you believe I thought I had the hots for that jerk Delita? And then he gave me THIS doozy," she pulled up her shirt to reveal a vicious scar across her stomach.
"Whoo! Nasty!" Malak winced.
"Ramza," Captain Flite said. "You have my utmost apologies about this entire incident. The military of Ivalice is in your debt."
"You're welcome," Ramza said.
"I hate to break this up, but we really ought to get into that temple before daylight," Cinna said.
"He's right," Rad said. "Ajora's still a threat."
"Ajora?..." Delita asked as Flite forced him to stand up and raise his hands high into the air in a sign of surrender.
"You don't know?" Alicia said. "The Lucavi's boss."
"He's also the boss of the Mechannites," Lavian added.
"Yeah, he's a lot more dangerous than you," Meliadoul taunted. Delita growled menacingly.
"Go now and find what is in the temple," Flite said. "These two and I shall handle Delita."
"Thank you very much, sir," Alma said, nodding politely.
"Let's go!" Malak called as he shoved the doors open and the party spilled into the temple.
"I hope they all come back OK," Balmafula said.
"They just might find a way to resurrect Ovelia," Olan said.
"That is their mission?" Flite asked. "I am ashamed even more."
"(I'm not finished with you yet...)" Delita growled. "(This is personal now, Ramza... I'll kill you with my bare hands if I have to...)"