~*~Chapter 14 Bitter freedom~*~
Rydia pointed at the four fiends, and green, flaming orbs danced around her. She called something, and the intensity of the orbs' glowing gave away that it was something powerful.
What appeared in front of her was a giant, blue sea snake, and Milon was brought to its knees by the powerful tidal wave erupting from the long body. The old man raised his hands, his strangely light-green eyes flashing as he mumbled. A massive lightning bolt hit Kainazzo and the wave of pressure forced Rubicant to stagger aside. But as the magicians had to draw back for preparing a second magic blow, the fiends attacked. Cecil and Edge held their swords ready, Rosa had an arrow in her bow. Kain turned his head. The knowledge was enough, he didn't want to see Valvalis die again. He didn't want to know which one of his friends it was who turned his heart to dust.
"What the hell…!?" Golbez gasped in shocked rage.
Kain sighed deeply, and his breath shivered. It might as well have been a sob.
'Farewell, Valvalis…' he bitterly thought.
He still didn't turn his head to watch his friends advancing. But there suddenly was a blinding flash coming from the wall with the moving picture; like an explosion.
"You have to do everything yourself…" Golbez growled in outrage.
He pushed a button on the tables, and a door opened a few feet away from Kain, to his left. Golbez' cloak flowed behind him as he rushed out of the room, leaving the dragoon alone. Lazily, Kain turned to the right wall.
Cecil, Rosa, Rydia, Edge and the old man stood silent, watching their work. They had destroyed something; three black orbs laid cracked on a mess of smashed mechanical remains. Suddenly, they all looked up. Golbez entered the screen, his dark eyes glistening with hate. He shouted something, and the old man ran over to him, trying to speak with him. But Golbez fist hit the bearded one and he fell.
However the man in black suddenly froze, staring bewilderedly at the old man.
Nobody moved.
The old man said something, and Golbez rubbed his forehead. As he then slowly said something, Cecil looked like he had seen a ghost and backed a few steps in shock. Rydia, Rosa and Edge's eyes went between the paladin and Golbez, their gazes filled with disbelief.
'What's happening?' Kain wondered, frowning.
Golbez reached out a hand and helped the old man to stand up. This, needless to say, really startled the dragoon.
Suddenly his chains dissolved, and he fell to the ground. It was not a soft or silent landing since he wore his armor, but at least he was free. He had no idea why, though.
The old man and Golbez rushed out of the screen on the wall, though Edge and the women shouted something after them. Cecil seemed paralyzed.
'I won't bother you anymore, Kain,' Golbez voice growled in the dragoon's head, 'I have been used, and I'll go to take my revenge.'
'What's happening? Who is the old man?' Kain thought, confused.
'His name is FuSoYa,' Golbez answered, 'and he was a friend of my father KluYa. And my father is also Cecil's father.'
'What!?'
'I didn't know. Your friends can tell you everything, now hurry to get them out of here.'
Kain got up and staggered out of the room. His whole body was stiff after the rough treatment he had received in the past few days, and it was long since he had moved last.
There was a stair outside of the door, and something lay on the floor down there, between two metallic doors.
'I've sent your helmet and spear to the stairs,' Golbez informed, 'take them and then go to the right to find your friends. The left path will bring you out of the giant. Hurry, it'll start to break up any second.'
Kain somehow made it down the stair. He picked up his stolen equipment and pushed the right door open. There was the smashed machinery, and behind it his friends. Everything began to shake as the dragoon staggered inside.
"Come on!" he shouted, "the giant is about to fall, I'll bring you out of here!"
Everyone except Cecil, who just stared at the floor, spun around to stare at Kain.
"You betrayed us!" Edge growled.
Kain was too tired and broken to start explaining. There wasn't any time for it either.
"Should it happen again, don't hesitate to do away with me," he called, "but right now you have to trust me!"
Rosa shook Cecil's shoulders to bring him back into life, but he still moved like a zombie as the four warriors followed Kain.
The dragoon forced the second door open, entering a small, flashing room.
'It's a teleportation room,' Golbez explained, 'just call out where you want to go, there's still just enough power left. Good-bye, Kain. I won't torture your mind again.'
'Wait…!'
But there was no answer.
The flashing lights on the walls were becoming less and less flashing for every second that passed.
"This will bring us out," Kain harshly told Rosa, "where do you want it to bring us? Hurry!"
"The Big Whale!" Rosa yelled, and everything became unclear.
Kain found himself in another light room with flashing walls as he opened his eyes. In the middle of it was something astonishingly similar to a crystal's holy pillar. There was a crystal there, but Kain was too exhausted to really care.
"Are you alright, Kain?" Rosa asked, worried.
"Tried to weaken… haven't eaten in…" he mumbled.
His legs couldn't carry him and his armor anymore and he fell to the floor, unconscious.
He awoke in a bed. It was grey and seemed to be made all out of metal, but despite the looks it was soft and comfortable. On the other hand, he felt as if he'd consider anything soft and comfortable. His armor laid on the floor in a tidy heap, and beside it was his spear. Kain only wore the usual, simple light-brown shirt and pants that he always carried beneath his armor.
He knew that he had changed from the prisoner's clothing into his own some time when he had been hypnotized in Baron, but those details were all too vague to grip.
Kain tried to move, and his whole body exploded with ache. He moaned slightly.
"Oh, you're awake," a relieved voice said.
"Rosa…?" Kain harshly whispered.
With a cup in her hand, she sat down by his bed.
"You need to eat something," she softly told him and helped him to sit up, "here, have some soup. Don't drink too fast."
Kain managed to hold the cup and lazily blew on it to cool it down. Though his body screamed and pleaded for him to swallow the meat and vegetable soup, he wasn't in the mood for it. His head was spinning with questions and bitter knowledge.
"She's dead…" he whispered.
"Who?" Rosa carefully asked.
He needed to tell somebody; it was too much for him to carry alone.
"Valvalis… she saved my life, and I killed her, Rosa! She didn't want to listen… she was a slave too, I… I…"
Rosa moved over to his bedside and put her hands on his shaking shoulders.
"Look, Kain, if you hadn't killed her back then, she would have killed all of us. It was the same this time, when…"
"Don't tell me," Kain whispered, "I don't want to know who killed her once and for all."
"Alright."
Rosa put her hand on his pale cheek, calming.
"Now drink the soup," she kindly told him, "you're very weakened, and I can't heal hunger."
Ignoring the remaining heat, Kain slowly swallowed all of the soup. It sent warmth through his battered body, though his throat burned by it.
"Healing forces in my blood…" Rosa softly chanted.
Kain's body stopped aching, and his strength returned. But it didn't help his darkened, sad mind.
"Do you feel any better?" the white magician said.
For as long as he could remember, Kain had wished that she would be at his side, caring only for him. But now it didn't matter at all.
"Yes, thank you," he forced past his lips.
"Kain?"
It was Cecil. He looked very tired, and more or less fell down on the bedside, by Rosa. For the moment he also had taken off his armor, only wearing the same simple clothing as Kain did.
"Kain, Golbez is… he is…"
But the two words couldn't touch the paladin's tongue, though it burned everyone's mind. "My brother".
Kain slowly nodded.
"I know," he said.
"Can you stand up?" Cecil asked, "we'll have to talk about how we will proceed."
"I'm coming."
Kain pushed the blanket aside and managed to get up. His legs protested, but he refused them their wish to let him fall.