~*~Chapter 7 Repaying for a life? ~*~
Golbez went out of the door, and the dragoon followed. Hurrying steps closed in from a distance quickly, and so Cecil and his friends came running through the corridor.
"My, how nice to see you," Golbez said, scornfully, "now, give me the crystal."
"Where is Rosa?" Cecil demanded.
"The crystal first."
Clenching his teeth, the paladin threw a clear, glistening stone to Golbez.
"There!" Cecil snapped, "now where's Rosa?!"
"Rosa? What about her?" Golbez smirked and turned away.
"Why you…!"
Cecil's angry call suddenly changed to a yell of fear.
"Tellah! Stop!"
The other two men yelled as well as an old man dressed in mostly purple robes despite his age rushed over the floor.
"For Anna!" he snarled, "Golbez!"
The man in black turned around, with a bored look.
"What do you want, old man?"
"Tellah!" Cecil screamed, "don't do it!"
"Golbez, this is for my daughter!" the old man yelled, "Meteo!!"
"What!?"
The man's hands began to glow as his voice complete the spell's last words, and from out of nowhere burning stones came crashing down on Golbez for what seemed like forever. They all dissolved after hitting him. Then suddenly, it all came to stop, and the old man dropped to the floor. Kain looked at the fallen Golbez, and his head felt strangely cool. He had to lean against the wall, suddenly remembering everything and thinking clearly for the first time in many, many days. He finally was able to break free from Golbez' spell, now seeing how he had been used and corrupted by the magic.
'Is it over?' he thought, 'is he dead?'
But he knew it wasn't so. Cecil and the two other men had assembled around the fallen one they called Tellah. Now Kain saw that one of the other men was a warrior from Fabul, with no skirt and the little hair upon his head in a long pigtail. And the other one was Cid, the mechanic.
"I fought in hatred…" Tellah whispered, "I will pay the price…"
"No!" Cecil and his two friends called in despair as the old man took a staggering breath and then became still.
Golbez moved. He got up, slowly but steady. The three remaining warriors spun around as they heard the sound of movement.
"Thought you had defeated me?" the man in black armor snarled, "no, and now the old man is dead, but I still stand."
"You…!"
With a roar of rage Cecil rushed forward, but Golbez knocked him into the wall. The paladin shook his head, trying to get up. The man in black raised his hands, he was going to…
But Golbez never began chanting the killing spell. He stared strangely at Cecil, with confusion rising in his dark, shadowed eyes.
"You…" the evil commander slowly said, "who are you?"
He backed off, shrugging his shoulders.
"We will meet again, Cecil!" he growled.
And so Golbez disappeared, without another word. Kain took a few, staggering steps.
"Rosa…" he croaked, "must hurry… Cecil… in there!"
He pointed at the door. The paladin got up and ran inside, without hesitating. Cid and the man of Fabul, however, hurried over to Kain and helped him walk after Cecil. They entered the room just in time to see the paladin cut Rosa free and pull her away from the pole she had been tied onto. The next second a heavy blade fell from the ceiling, making a deep cut in the floor where Rosa's heels had been.
Nobody said a word as Cecil and Rosa turned to look at each other. They embraced. Kain looked away; he knew they kissed. He didn't think he could take seeing it.
"I'm so relieved to have you back!" Cecil said with a thick voice.
"I knew you'd come!" Rosa whispered.
"Your absence made me realize how much I…"
Cecil became quiet and just smiled warmly. Rosa smiled back, then she turned around to look at Kain's resolute face.
"I know you were controlled, Kain," she softly said.
"Forgive me…" he mumbled.
"It's alright."
He looked at her and knew that she would never tell Cecil what Golbez had said. Kain managed to smile a little.
"Come, let's blast out of this place!" Cid exclaimed.
"Indeed, foul air fills the tower," the man of Fabul said.
They hurried towards the door, but…
"Not so fast!"
Kain spun around. A lightning from out of nowhere hit the floor, and Valvalis suddenly stood there, her eyes burning with anger.
"Kain, you…!" she snarled, "will you never thank me for saving your neck? Now you betray us?"
He took a step forward.
"Valvalis, I don't want to fight with you! Please listen to me!" he called, knowing she wouldn't listen at all, "as you said, we are both warriors of the air…"
"Enough!" she snapped, "neither you nor your friends will leave here alive! Lightning that tears the sky apart, come to my hands!"
"Look out!"
Cecil threw himself and Rosa on the floor, trying to protect her with his own body. Kain ducked, and somehow even Cid and the other man managed to get out of the way of the lightning bolts.
"Valvalis, stop it!" the dragoon called.
"Pha!" she growled.
She started to spin around, her hair wrapped itself around her by the speed. Looking like a tornado, she attacked Kain. He jumped to avoid her, and for a short second he felt nothing but relief about finally jumping by his own will. He landed on the floor, just as Cid was about to get hit by Valvalis. The man of Fabul threw himself through the air, grabbed the mechanic's shoulders and brought him to safety. By now the fiend of Air had reached a spin that would kill anyone who got too close.
"Valvalis!" Kain yelled in despair.
But she didn't listen. Cecil brought out a tiny bow from his backpack and it grew magically in his hands. He picked out an arrow and fired it at Valvalis. But her speed and hair protected her; the arrow bounced and hit the floor.
"We can't touch her as long as she does that tornado!" Cid yelled.
"Must stop her spin…!" Cecil growled.
He turned his head.
"Kain! Jump!"
"What?" the dragoon called, stuttering.
"It's the only hope!"
Kain stared at Valvalis, who had turned at Cid and the man of Fabul again.
"Yang, look out!" Rosa yelled.
The sunburned man jumped aside… into the wall. He fell down and wasn't going to get up standing in time.
"Valvalis!" Kain screamed, "Valvalis, stop, I don't want to fight you!"
She seemed to slow down for a moment, then turned around, rushing towards the dragoon instead.
"Go to hell, Kain!" he heard her growl.
He had to jump to avoid her, and did so.
'There's no other way,' he thought, almost with tears in his eyes as he floated by the ceiling, 'she will kill us if I don't… and she went through such fear because of me…'
He hadn't really understood all that had been said between her, Rubicant and that invisible person they had called Zemus, but he had grasped that even the fiends were more or less controlled, just as he had been.
He grabbed his spear with both hands and pointed it downwards, aiming carefully.
"Forgive me!" he whispered as he rushed down through the air.
He hoped that she had heard him, because his planning showed result. She was hit in the back, and Kain landed on nothing except the floor. Valvalis had dissolved before she even had dropped halfway to the ground.
He didn't even get time to cry out his pain over killing somebody who had saved his life, before the room started to crumble.
"The tower is falling!" Cid yelled.
"Come here!" Rosa called, "hold onto me!"
The four men hurried to grab her hands.
"Guardian angels, bring us to safety!" she yelled, and the world became unclear.