Chapter Five
"Risto Minnd, your team was truly the most skilled in the tournament. It is my honor to present you, and the Besaid Aurochs, with the highest honor in blitzball—the Crystal Cup." Grand Maester Ruko smiled, as he handed the shimmering bowl to the well-built captain of the winning blitzball team. Minnd, a grin on his face from ear to ear, planted a kiss on the side of the cup, and then held it into the air.
At that moment, the entire blitzball stadium burst into thunderous applause. Even the most zealous supporter of one of the other Spira League teams had to grudgingly acknowledge the prowess of the Besaid Aurochs—although she didn't have to like it. "It's STILL not fair." Neirana muttered to herself.
The waves of applause kept coming, washing over the stadium; all the happiness and good feelings the audience members were feeling forming a nexus of positive energy. Up in the Maesters' Booth, all of the occupants smiled—except one. While even humorless Nyasa Ronso was cracking a fanged Ronso grin, the man in the black Crusaders' uniform wore a mask of worry and concern on his face.
'Amono… why do I feel your mind? Are you trying to tell me something from the Farplane? What must I do?' Tyron beseeched the memory of his long-gone friend, but no answer came.
And then a frighteningly loud bell began to ring, and everything went straight to hell.
* * *
Atop one of the several watchtowers that lined the ports of Luca, several blocks down from the blitzball stadium, Crusader Fourth Class Edvir Minto was doing his duty, bored completely out of his skull. "I've sat here at my watchpost since dawn, saw absolutely NOTHING except a merchant ship arriving, and I didn't even get time off to watch any of the blitzball tournament!" he sighed to himself. "Well, I did my duty exactly as ordered. I better… get… promoted…" his voice trailed off. Standing up, he looked out at the sea, completely stunned.
About a mile off the coast of Luca—yet closing fast—was a huge bulge of water. Waves sloshed all around it, huge whitecaps crashing down on the ocean, as it left an immense wake. Edvir had only seen this once in his entire twenty-two-year lifetime, and it sent deep chills of fear into his heart.
Finally, the young Crusader's limbs sprang to life, and he leapt towards the alarm bell located in the top-right corner of the watchtower booth. Clasping the rope in both hands, he began ringing it frantically. "SIN! SIN IS COMING!" He shouted, raising the alarm.
As the other Crusaders heard the bell, they rang their own alarms, and within two minutes, the entire city of Luca knew that the terror they feared had come at last.
* * *
"Neirana, what's going on?" Kecci asked her, looking around, confused. The bells had just started up out of nowhere…
His friend stood up, a grim look on her face. "I don't know either, but it can't be good." As her watchful eyes roamed around the throngs of stunned and confused people, she noticed that many were making for the exits, as quickly as possible. "I think we better get out of here, Kecci."
As soon as she had said that, a young Crusader dashed into the blitzball stadium, making a beeline up the stairs, to the top level, and sprinting for the Maesters' Booth. He delivered a message to the Grand Maester, apparently unaware that Ruko's voice was being amplified. The entire stadium heard him speak. "Grand Maester Ruko, sir, we need to get you out of here as quickly as possible. We've spotted Sin offshore, sir, and it's closing fast."
With that, there was a moment of stunned silence in the stadium.
That silence quickly became complete and utter pandemonium. Screaming fans of blitzball pushed their way out of seats, trampling others in their survival instinct, to get out of the stadium as fast as possible. Kecci and Neirana quickly found all available exits completely blocked by panicked crowds.
As Neirana turned to run towards the exit, she felt something crack her on the head and she pitched forward, landing on one of the stadium seats, hard. A bulky man dressed in the colors of the Ronso Fangs shoved his way past her, frantically running for the exit. "OH, HOLY YEVON!" he was screaming, knocking people out of his way. "SIN!"
"We can't get out." Kecci's voice was soft and firm as he helped her to her feet. "All the exits are blocked." Hearing Kecci's voice, steady and strong, helped Neirana focus, to pull herself away from the panic that threatened to overtake her. She took a deep breath, and tried to keep her wits about her.
Unfortunately, none of the other people in the stadium were concentrating on staying levelheaded. The screams of terror echoed through the tunnels leading outward, and into the stadium.
With great difficulty, she finally managed to push away the fear boiling up inside her. "What should we do now?" There was no response. "Kecci?" Neirana turned to look at her friend, and then involuntarily stepped back at the look on his face.
Kecci was completely silent, his fists clenched, a look of anger on his face… no, hatred. In his infinitely deep eyes, there was a look of incredible pain… and then, the pain and hatred were swept from his face, and he was himself again—sort of. "Let's go up top." He said, in a hushed whisper. "I want to see this thing first-hand."
Without another word, the dark-skinned boy turned away and started climbing over the now-vacant seats, going the opposite way of the frantic crowd. Neirana stared after him for a moment, then followed, unwilling to be by herself in the panic. Without Kecci's calming presence, she didn't trust herself…as she climbed after him, the girl reached underneath her Kilika Beasts jacket and withdrew a long, thin blade, just in case.
As they reached the top row, Kecci turned to her, and his eyebrows rose at the sight of her sword. "You have Quicksilver with you?" he asked her softly. There was something odd in his voice that Neirana had trouble placing… but Sin was coming. No time for emotions right now, she told herself.
"Dad says that all adventurers have to get used to carrying their weapons. He makes me take it everywhere I go… Good thing, huh?" Kecci merely nodded, then turned to look over the wall at the ocean.
Before he could see anything, however, a stern voice spoke up. "Get out of here, kids! This isn't safe! Sin is coming!"
Kecci looked at the Crusader who had ordered him away, and involuntarily stepped back. It was the soldier with the son… the very boy who was hiding behind his father, tears of fear streaming down his face. And from this close, Kecci saw how much this Crusader resembled his father.
He had the same straight-backed stance that Kecci remembered from his childhood, the same neatly-trimmed dark hair, the same eyes that shone with bravery and passion… despite everything, despite the fact that a huge sea monster was about to attack, a debilitating stab of pain thrust into the boy's chest, making his eyes water.
"But you're up here, aren't you?" Neirana's gaze hardened, as she tightened her grip on Quicksilver's hilt. "It's just as 'safe' for us as it is for you!"
The Crusader nodded silently. "But it's our job. Not yours."
At a loss for words, Kecci merely nodded to the soldier's order, and then noticed something. The man wore on his face the expression of a man who had accepted death. He knew his duty, and was going to face it like a true soldier. As Kecci looked down the stadium path at the line of Crusaders and warrior monks preparing for battle with the scourge of Spira, they all wore the same face. They knew they were going to die here.
Seeing the horror on Kecci's face, the Crusader's gaze flicked down to the sobbing child. "My name is Gim Hawling… take him, please. Protect him."
At those words, the boy burst into tears, clinging to his father's leg. "No, daddy! Please, no! Don't make me leave! Don't go away, please!"
His father looked down at him, then gently picked him up and looked at him, giving him a tight hug. "Yuma, I love you. Go with these two people. They'll help keep you safe. Tell your mother I love her, if anything happens to me." Gim set him down again, and gently pushed him towards Kecci and Neirana.
Down the line, closer to the Maesters' Booth, a young Crusader, a woman, shouted out, drawing her sword. "Here it comes!"
"NOW GO!" yelled Gim, and turned his attention to the water, readying his weapon. At his command, Neirana stumbled backward, then picked up the wailing child and ran, Kecci close behind her.
And then, with an ear-shattering roar, the bulge of water crashed up against the port, in a huge wave. From inside the stadium, Neirana could hear the screams of those who had escaped the stadium, only to be swept away by the tsunami. She shivered involuntarily, Kecci grimaced, and the boy began to cry even harder. The sadness of the previous moment was gone, replaced by a bone-chilling fear. Sin. Sin was here.
The screams of the people in the tunnels, screams of terror, they also changed. For Sin was not alone. In its wake, it carried hundreds of fiends, of Sinspawn—lesser monsters, easier to kill but extremely deadly nonetheless. The screams of terror were now screams of utter pain, and the people began boiling out of the tunnels, going into the stadium once more, pursued by legions of monsters.
Tightening her grip on the sword, Neirana handed the wailing boy to Kecci, whose face was much paler than usual. "Keep him safe, Kecci."
"Wait! What are you going to do?" He asked, as he gently sat Yuma in a chair, eyes wide.
She nodded grimly at him. "What someone ought to have done by now." With that, she turned, and with a battle cry rushed down the stairs, heading into the crowds of fiends.
* * *
Hearing the screams from below, Grand Maester Ruko turned, surveyed the situation, and then returned his gaze to the man in the black Crusaders' uniform. "Tyron," he said in a perversely calm voice. "Take a group of the warrior monks and go down there to protect the citizens from the fiends. Quickly, if you would."
As Tyron Sul nodded, and then went to obey, Ruko walked over to the mousy Maester Shiino. "It's time." He whispered to the shorter man.
As he said that, an earth-shattering roar tore through the air, stunning most of those who heard it. Then, an enormous figure reared up from the ocean, water dripping from its black, lumpy flesh. Roughly in the shape of a whale, Sin was easily half a mile in length, and probably more—no one had ever been able to measure it, naturally. It roared again, from an unseen mouth, and then its skin began to fall off from its body.
What appeared to have been skin was not really skin at all, instead, it was a layer of fiends that clung to the real Sin beneath. These fiends were about the size of a dog, and insectoid, with segmented bodies, and six legs. They also had a wicked looking stinger protruding from their midsection.
The fiends fell to the stadium floor curled up into balls, then unrolled themselves and sprang at the Crusaders and warrior monks. The defenders of Spira, however, were prepared for them, and met the monsters with naked steel. Leading the charge was Maester Tinei. Wielding an immense Greatsword that was easily eight feet long, his jovial blue eyes were now fierce and cold, and he snarled with barely restrained fury. "DIE, you children of EVIL!" Tinei screamed, cleaving two of the scorpion-like fiends in half with one stroke. Right behind him, Maester Nyasa wielded her polearm with precision instead of brute strength, spearing a fiend on the end, and then tossing it into another one, knocking both off the stadium and into the ocean.
Impressed and rather unnerved at the same time by Maester Tinei's actions, Ruko turned his gaze to Shiino and Sin. It was an odd contrast, really. The tiny human Maester, and the gigantic sea monster, yet both wielding immense power…
Shiino grabbed his summoner's staff, which was a rod of hard oak wood that was gold at the top, in the pattern of an eye. He began to twirl it around in the air, chanting words in a foreign language to himself. Slowly, dark storm clouds began to gather overhead… and then faster and faster, until the whole sky was dark. Almost no light could get through, making the afternoon seem like dusk.
As the rod spun above his head, the 'pupil' in the golden eye began to shine a brilliant white. Then, suddenly, Shiino threw it to the ground. The staff stuck, shaft first, while the eye crackled with pure white energy. A beam of pearl light shot up into the air, penetrating the clouds, pure and holy. It was so bright that none except Shiino could look near it; even the mighty Sin turned its bulbous head away.
Slowly, a figure floated down from the clouds, in the shaft of light, an angelic figure. He had three pairs of pure white wings sprouting from his back—one pair to fly with, one pair to cover his feet, and one pair to cover his face. It was definitely a male, of rather impressive physique, as well. He was wearing no clothes, yet around his waist there seemed to be a nimbus of light, obscuring any details he may have had. In his right hand, he held a sword, a longsword that glittered as though it were made from crystal. Everyone paused, stunned—even the fiends—to look at this astounding being of luminescence.
As the angel hovered above the stadium, Shiino bowed his head as if in sadness, then reached his hand out to the being, although he was much too far away. As Shiino's arm rose, the angel's sword burst into flame, a white fire that lit the entire stadium, and even those at the bottom could feel the heat, their fear momentarily forgotten. At that very moment, the two pairs of wings that covered the angel's feet and face parted, all three pairs now used for flight. The angel stared at Sin with sapphire eyes, and then spoke in a husky voice. "I am justice."
The white flame on the sword seemed to flare up, becoming even brighter, as he pulled it back into a battle stance.
"I am vengeance."
Sin reared back, as if confused by this new opponent, one who radiated such power, especially for such a small being. Below, Neirana dropped Quicksilver with a clatter, yet didn't notice it. What was this thing?
"I am the Holy Aeon, Gabriel."
With that, he rushed at Sin with a piercing battle cry, and the battle was joined once more.
Sin bellowed, a bass rumble that went down into notes humans were barely capable of hearing. It nodded its immense head, and a rippling wave of energy tore through the air at Gabriel. The much smaller creature slipped to the side, leaving the energy wave to crash into the side of the blitzball stadium, obliterating that area with an immeasurably loud boom. With the explosion, the air of peace that had settled over the stadium at Gabriel's summoning vanished, and the arena was once more dominated by the screams of the dying and the terrified.
There was a flash of silver; a wolflike fiend fell apart, cleaved neatly down the middle, and evaporated into pyreflies. Neirana turned, slicing at another of the fiend's pack, taking its forelegs off. Quicksilver flashed again, and she ended the canine's misery. For the moment, she was in the clear. Her heart pounding, Neirana brushed a lock of hair from her face and took a quick survey of the situation.
She was on one of the bottommost levels, on the circular pathway around the stadium. Fiends were pouring out of the tunnels immediately in front and in back of her, and large numbers of terrified people were backing away from them. One, a short woman in the uniform of the stadium personnel, saw Neirana with her sword, and frantically called out to her. "Please! Help us!"
In front of the group that the woman was in, several large dragon-like fiends were closing in. One, drawn to the worker by her shout, raised its head and inhaled deeply. The woman began to scream in terror, but that only pointed her out as a target even more. With a mighty roar, the dragon shot a fireball from its gaping maw, hitting the stadium worker right in the stomach. Deadly flames wrapped around her body, and she fell to the ground, writhing in pain as the fire consumed her.
Seeing the woman's flesh bubble and boil, the sight was too much for the crowd, and they turned and fled in utter terror, screaming, pushing each other out of the way, trampling those unlucky enough to fall. Now amused by the antics of their prey, the trio of fiends moved with surprising speed, leaping after the mob. A bulky man in the colors of the Besaid Aurochs fell to the leader, the dragon's claws raking deep gashes in his back. His wails of agony sent shivers down Neirana's spine before a quick bite from one of the other dragons cut them off suddenly.
The only thought that flashed through Neirana's mind was that she had to stop this carnage. All over the bottom level, fans were climbing over the seats, trying to get away from the fiends, but they were being hunted. Hunted like animals. Neirana lifted her sword and charged at one of the dragons, slashing at its neck when it was in range.
Her blade bounced right off the creature's hard scales with a loud clang. All Neirana's strike did was get the fiend's attention, and it turned to her from its fresh kill, blood dripping from its snout. In a flash, her common sense returned to her, and Neirana began to back away in terror, as the other two dragons focused on this new threat as well.
"Your weapon isn't suited for piercing its armor…" said a soft voice from behind her. Neirana jumped involuntarily, startled. Behind her, a man in a black and white Crusaders' uniform was stroking the edge of his katana.
He stared at her with piercing silver eyes, and a memory flashed into Neirana's mind… but she couldn't place it. "Neirana, I'll handle these three. Go help with the other ones!" he motioned behind him, where a group of warrior monks was clashing with a battalion of fiends. Not asking how he knew her name, the girl nodded and rushed off, leaping into the fray, Quicksilver glittering and deadly.
The girl safely gone, Tyron Sul turned his attention to the three dragons closing in on him, annoyed that their smaller, more vulnerable meal was gone. "Oh, I've missed this." He said, putting his katana down and cracking his knuckles. Then he leaned over and grabbed the hilt of his blade—a good sword, it was, but nothing special. However, it would do the job.
Tyron held the blade out in front of him horizontally, parallel to the ground. Sinking his weight onto his back leg, he stood in that stance, daring the dragons to attack. One took the bait, springing forward, razor claws seeking to decapitate its victim. The older warrior shifted his weight, pulling back to safely sidestep the attack, and there was the barest flicker of motion from his wrist. His attacker turned around, angry that it had missed—and then its head fell from its body.
In the same motion, Tyron stepped through the two dragons, his sword cutting up and disemboweling one. Then, he spun, his black ponytail flying behind him, and drove the point of the weapon deep into the last dragon's heart, spitting it cleanly. Tyron pulled the weapon out of the fiend as it dissolved into pyreflies, and smiled grimly as the little glowing orbs wafted up into the sky around him. All three dragons were dead in the space of ten seconds.
And the battle continued around him.
* * *
The white flames that formed Gabriel's weapon slashed out, cutting through the monster's armor as if it weren't there. Sin bellowed in anger as the angel flew away above it, and fired another of the energy blasts, yet the nimble aeon once again evaded the deadly beam. Both Shiino and his aeon knew that Gabriel's agility was the only thing keeping him alive. If Sin managed to connect a hit, it was all over.
Gabriel's sapphire eyes flashed, and explosions of Holy energy burst from within the gigantic monster, boiling spheres of light that rushed outward, leaving deep wounds in the beast's body… yet slowly but surely, those wounds were beginning to repair themselves. Yet another rippling wave of power shot outward, and Gabriel twisted to the side, yet the tips of his wings were clipped nonetheless. The Holy Aeon grimaced. That had been too close…
Back down in the stadium, Kecci was trying frantically to keep the distraught child from running off to his father. "No! Yuma, you have to stay here! It's way too dangerous!"
The child was writhing in Kecci's grip, kicking, clawing, screaming and crying. "I want my daddy! I want to go to my daddy!" Yuma wailed, trying with all of his might to escape from this bad person who was keeping him from his beloved daddy. Still, Kecci managed to hold on, and not let him go. However, it was an uphill battle…
With a deafening bang, a wave of rippling energy slammed into the stadium next to them, sending huge chunks of stone and concrete flying, as well as various people and fiends unlucky enough to be caught in the blast. The truly lucky ones had been vaporized immediately.
Kecci tumbled head over heels, thrown back, until he collided with a bleacher, completely shattering it. His world swam, and due to the sharp pain in his head and upper back, he was sure he had a concussion of some sort. "Yuma… are you okay?" Kecci managed to croak out. Then, with a shock, he realized that the boy was no longer in his grasp. Sitting upright with a shock, Kecci fought the waves of pain and nausea that threatened to overtake his entire body, and looked around.
The section of the stadium he was in had been thoroughly decimated by the blasts. All over the place he could see parts of the stadium, parts of the seating, and most disturbing, parts of people. Yet there was a lot he couldn't see, since there were heavy clouds of dust and smoke all over the place.
"Yuma!" He cried out, staggering to his feet. Kecci took a deep breath to shout again and began to cough uncontrollably as he inhaled a large quantity of smoke. The dark-skinned boy doubled over coughing, and noticed that blood was coming from his mouth. Collapsing to his hands and knees, Kecci almost gave into the temptation to fall into blissful unconsciousness… but shook it off, concentrating on the reality of his pain, of the jagged stone underneath his hands. He had to find Yuma.
* * *
Gim's sword was covered in dark blood from the fiends he had killed. Yet no matter how many he and his fellow Crusaders slew, there were always dozens more of the insectoid bastards. His chest heaving from over-exertion, Gim turned around to find his next target, yet noticed that he was in the clear, for the moment.
All along the top few rows of the stadium, the fierce battle was raging. Fiend after fiend fell, evaporating into pyreflies, yet the brave Crusaders and warrior monks were steadily and constantly being pushed back. As Gim watched, a young man who he had trained himself fell to the onslaught, impaled on the stinger of one of the fiends.
Under normal circumstances, Gim would have mourned, would have grieved. Yet the complete carnage around him dulled his senses. Everywhere he looked, bodies were piling higher. Some were warriors, who had died fighting, grimaces of pain forever frozen onto their faces. Some were merely normal citizens who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some Gim knew, some he didn't. All of them massacred by the malevolence that was Sin.
'We can kill thirty of them for every single man we lose,' Gim thought bleakly. 'Yet they'll still win. Yevon take them, all of them.' And even if you killed one of the scorpion fiends, it could still kill you even in its death throes, whether by decapitating you or poisoning you with its instantaneous-acting toxin. They couldn't win, there was no way.
"Papa!" came a small voice from below him. Startled, Gim spun around to see Yuma, bruised and soot-stained, but overjoyed to see his father. The boy was about two levels below the battle, and was climbing up.
Gim swore to himself. What had happened to the boy and the girl who he had asked to take care of Yuma? Then the answer came into his mind—they were dead, of course. A pity, really. They had seemed so nice…
* * *
After several minutes of panicked searching, Kecci finally heard Yuma's voice, and staggered in the direction it had come from. Then, without warning, he was out of the dust cloud, and could see the situation. The little boy was about a level above him, and walking up to his father, oblivious to the danger all around him. Yet the danger wasn't oblivious to the boy in their midst.
Seeing such a helpless creature, four of the insectoid fiends ran from their individual battles, eager to get some of this tasty morsel. Yuma didn't see them, but Kecci did. Trying his best to overcome the pain wracking his body, the older boy poured on all the speed he could muster. "YUMA!" he screamed, as he ran toward the child. "LOOK OUT!" he was ten steps away… five steps… four, three, two, one…
Kecci took the boy up in his arms, protecting him as he had promised… then he looked up and screamed, as the four fiends leapt, eager to kill… Kecci closed his eyes and waited for the end.
The end never came. Shakily, the older boy opened his eyes to see what had happened, and then literally fell over backwards, Yuma escaping from his grip. No, it couldn't be.
Rikai Hayado was standing in front of him, sword unsheathed, four bisected fiends at his feet.
Blinking to make sure that this was real, it wasn't just a vision in his death throes… Kecci realized his eyes were moist. "Dad…?" he whispered. Slowly, Rikai turned around, the same proud yet loving look on his face that Kecci knew so well… he reached out to his son, offering his hand… and then the tip of a stinger appeared in his belly. Rikai Hayado looked down at the object, then looked behind him at the rest of the stinger impaling him… and collapsed, dead on the spot.
Kecci heard someone screaming. In the next second, he realized it was him. Shaken from his reverie, he saw that it wasn't Rikai Hayado… it was that Crusader. The boy's father. Yuma was standing over his dad's body, tears streaming from his face. "Daddy? Daddy, please wake up… please, Daddy, say something to me! PLEASE! DADDY??" Then with a wail of anguish, the young boy knelt over his father's corpse, and began to sob.
Not knowing what to do, what was real, what had just happened, Kecci did the only thing he could do. He rolled over, vomited, and sunk to the ground, sobbing as well.
* * *
Maester Shiino closed his eyes, sensing that the time was right. Gabriel was at the peak of his energy… it was time to end the carnage. "Now, Irik… end it."
* * *
Slicing a wing off of one of the bird-like fiends that were pestering her, Neirana was gasping for air. She was bleeding from countless places, she was exhausted, yet the fiends kept coming. 'They… I… I… can't do this anymore…' The girl fell to her knees, her energy gone.
Then, just as she was about to give up and let the avians destroy her, she saw the most brilliant light she had ever seen, up in the sky. It was so beautiful… so pure… Neirana wished she could just reach out and touch it.
And then the light expanded, coming down to her at a breathtaking pace, washing over the stadium. As the light passed over her, she saw in her mind's eye the fiends around her evaporating into pyreflies, and she felt strangely healed… at peace. The light was soothing, calming, and Neirana accepted it, let it cleanse her.
Then she fell into heavenly unconsciousness.
