Warg...anyway, so part 5 was as much FF as I could. Does your head hurt? I know mine does, and I'm the one writing this.
Uh.
That's all I have to say right now. With what just happened, my head is hurting like a mother. And I'm not the only one. Everyone else is sitting around, trying to figure out what just happened as well. Hagmore is putting together several notes to try and sort things out, with the help of Ari and Cat. Julio went into a coma about ten minutes after the fight with Mark. Zan's INT stat actually temporarily decreased from everything. Alexander, of course, knows everything, and is very smug about it.
"...Okay..." Hagmore said after about three hours of pondering. "I think I kinda figured it out here." He looked at a very scribbled page, filled with all kinds of little side notes.
"Well? What's the verdict?" Ari asked.
"Okay...Julio and Zan met up with this Seraph thing a while ago, before we all met back together. They got some sweet abilities, but it seems to have been at a price. Zan turned into an undead Lich, despite the fact that he looks perfectly human, and Julio...well, he's in a coma, so..."
"That's pretty much what happened," Zan said, holding an ice pack to his head.
"Secondly, Sifian was killed because he was too much towards an alignment, instead of being neutral. From what I gathered, he would have been something like a Neutral Evil."
"Right on the mark there."
"And Mark is a minion working with Seniana for some greater power that wants us dead...or at least, out of commission. At the least, he managed to delay our progress with more plot."
"What a cruel way to plan something like that..." Cat said, shivering.
"On the plus side, we all class-upped, or gained some extra power, or something. Despite the fact that Alexander and Heath didn't even meet with the Seraph, they still seem to be stronger with us. While confusing, we can all simply say, 'Okay', and just keep going."
There was a bit of silence as we digested the info. "Well," Cat said, "before we leave, there's a big library in this town. I'd like to check it out for a while first. I mean, there's soooo much I have to study before the next school year starts, and I only got a 34 on the ACT, so I should really be studying..."
"Which is more important..." I asked, slamming my head on a table, "studying or saving the world from devastation by God?"
There was a silence. I realized what I had said, and promptly wished I hadn't. Everyone was staring at me again. Alexander clicked his tongue in admonishment. "Bad move," was all he said, before continuing to knit some mittens.
"When you say, 'devastation by God'," Hagmore said slowly, "You mean that in a metaphorical way, right?"
I sighed. They were too interested. I could never talk my way out of this. By probability, they were going to pay attention to me until I told them what I meant. I hate plot sometimes.
"Look, what's the main plot for all of the really good games these days?" I asked bluntly. "Something that involves killing God or destroying a religion, that's what. Look at Breath of Fire 2 and 3. Look at FF X and Tactics. Hell, look at Xenogears, the best of them all. And since this is supposed to be a damn good game, we need some sort of questionable ethics here. So why not talk about fighting God and going against all the rules of the ruling church, which is really corrupt and evil?"
Well, it got them to shut up, at least.
"Wait, wait...so you're saying we're supposed to go out and just start fighting the Church? Why would I do that? I was just a Paladin of the Church! The Church is not corrupt or anything you say!" I knew this was going to happen - better to get it out sooner than later. I slapped a hand on Hagmore's shoulder.
"Well, it doesn't matter if you believe me or not. You will find whatever the real truth is soon enough." I started to walk out, then paused. "Then, you can make your own opinions. But for now, concentrate on what's the real problem at hand. I'm going to the library." With that, I walked out.
Thankfully, the attention still stayed focused on the main party. They were all looking at each other a bit worriedly. Alexander was still quite calm. "Don't worry yourselves about him so much," he said calmly, still knitting. "This is something he's been at for years now. His backstory goes farther back than any of you can guess. He'll get over his emotions soon enough."
With that, Julio magically came out of his coma, and the group, minus me, hit the town. At some point while we were gone, the arsenals had restocked with much better equipment, so we went and bought new stuff to replace our old equipment. Those who class-changed could now use much better armor, so weak stuff was removed. They all looked a lot better, too. After buying some extra items that we had used, the ransacking of homes began. I love that ability in RPG's. One can go into someone's house and just take all their stuff. It's so nice.
While that was happening, they also talked with townspeople. And gained a lot of insight as to the future of this game. Apparently, an empire across the seas was starting a build-up of military weaponry. This was not a good sign. If they started to look overseas for conquering, then our plot would probably get suspended further than it already has. Also, a nearby town had apparently made a rare discovery - but no one knew what this discovery even was. Communications with the town had been cut off. It looked promising.
Finally, they entered the last house to ransack. Which was also the Elder's house. After taking his Elixir from his clock, Julio walked up and talked to him. And drama began.
"Greetings, travelers. What brings you to this distant town?" the Elder asked.
"Well, we were kinda here for the thing in the caves, but..." Julio trailed off, not sure what else we were here for. No one really knows. The Elder nodded.
"Ah, you wish to see the Seraph? We try not to let to many people near the mines these days. The monsters that have infested them are considerably powerful. Not many go in and come back out - in one piece, that is."
Zan raised his hand. "No, we already saw it."
The Elder took a step back. "Y-you what? You saw it? But how? Those who meet the Seraph are doomed for eternal punishment!"
"Poor Sifian, then." Zan muttered under his breath.
"You saw it? And did you speak with it? Did it grant you its power?" the Elder asked eagerly. Julio took a step back.
"Well...yeah, we did. Why wouldn't we?" The Elder went into shock.
"Impossible! No one has ever spoken with the Seraph and come back! Who are you people?"
They all looked at each other. "Well," Julio started, "I'm Julio, this is Zan, this is..."
"No, that's not what I mean! What are you? How can you speak with it?" The Elder seemed rather stressed about it. I would be too. Julio scratched his head.
"Well...me and Zan were both here when the Seraph first fell, and we talked with it then..." Julio didn't get to finish, since the Elder had a coronary right then and there. After getting him to settle down a bit, we got to plot.
"...now, then, why don't you tell everything about your meeting with the Seraph?" he asked, a bit calmer than he had been.
"Well..." Julio started, "after running through those caves, we got to the Seraph thing, and we talked with it, and it said, you know, 'I WILL GIVE YOU POWER', and we were all like, 'sw33t', and it was all like, 'YOU AREN'T COOL ENOUGH FOR POWAA', and Sifian went, 'arrgh', and then..."
"You know, how about I tell this story?" Cat said, a little peeved. As Julio continued to use hand puppets to display HIS Version of the Story(, Cat started on the real thing - without ninjas, mind you. That addition makes Julio's a lot cooler, I think. After a quick dimming of the screen, the story was finished. "...and that's about all that happened," she finished. There was a pause as the Elder digested the info.
"Most intriguing...so that was how it decided who received power? Quite amazing..." he sat in thought. Then something occurred to him. "But what about your first encounter with the Seraph? What happened then?"
There was a silence. Everyone was looking at the two in the room who had been there. Julio was still going off on a tangent, so that left Zan, who was calmly sitting, drinking tea. After a pause, he glanced up and saw everyone staring at him. "What?"
"With Julio the way he is, you're the only one who knows what happened back then," Ari said, rather menacingly. "Why don't you tell us all about it?"
"Uh...cause..." Zan floundered for a moment, then pointed. "I see a flashback coming!"
"Dammit."
The screen darkened for a moment, then we were shown the past. "Curses, it seems I'll still have to tell you," Zan muttered. "Well, al those years ago, when we were all still kids, we got our first sidequest. It wasn't anything big at first - just go and give this jewel to this guy over there, bring this towel to that other guy, give that one guy a piece of repossessed dirt cloth, simple stuff. But then, we took a sidequest from a mayor of a wealthy town."
"That wouldn't be such a problem, except this guy had a lot of people who hated him. So we were working for him, meaning they were after us, too. Unknown to us, we were followed as we went out on the quest we had been assigned. It was to kill a monster that had inhabited a mountain nearby. It had been attacking travelers and making it harder for traders to get in or out."
"Wait a minute," Hagmore interrupted. "If we were all still together, why don't I remember any of this?"
Cat nodded fiercely in agreement. "Same here. I can't remember any of this."
"Jeez, just hang on a minute, okay? I can't cover everything at once. Anyway, we went, and after a long, hard battle, we managed to kill the monster. After collecting the treasures around, we went back. And that was where the trouble started."
"While we were gone, the mayor's enemies had decided that the time had come to strike. They invaded his house and killed him and most everyone in the house. Only some servants and maids made it out alive. That's what we came back to. A slaughterhouse."
"But that wasn't all. Not everyone had left when we returned, and we were attacked by several of the enemies. After some fighting, we made it to the mayor's office, where we found him dead. However, there was also a mage there, and a rather powerful one, at that. He defeated us without any problem, and then used a mass teleportation spell to send us to the far reaches of the earth. However, the spell also seemed to cause some sort of memory loss, since when I awoke, I couldn't remember what had happened for the last few weeks. After I met up again with Julio, when we met the Seraph, our memories were restored. We managed to get everyone back together after some traveling, and here we are now."
The screen returned to normal. There was a silence from everyone. "But...why?" Ari asked. "Why would they want to erase our memories? That doesn't make sense. We were just kids at the time. What could we have done?"
"A lot of things," Alexander said calmly. "You'd be surprised at what children have done in the past." Zan nodded.
"We seemed to be no exception. Especially since we knew their secret."
"Their...secret?" Cat asked, head cocked sideways.
"We found that the group was hiding an illegal smuggling ring, as well as running a slave trade. That was what they were going to use us for, but that mage saw something in that future that disturbed him enough to want to get us away from them instead of capturing us. Whatever it was, we may never know." Zan sat down and sipped his tea. There was a silence, then he said, "...I'm done now."
Everyone let out a breath and relaxed. "Well, with that all done, we should go find our next destination. What can you tell us, old man?" Hagmore asked.
"I'm afraid I can be of no help to you people. With all that I have heard, it seems you have visited every town on this continent. The only other place that could hold answers is the southern continent." The old man sighed. "Unfortunately, the Emperor there has gotten rather ambitious these days, and looks to be preparing for domination. There won't be any ships headed that way."
There was a general sigh from around the room. "Well, I'm sure we'll find a way there," Julio said, coming out of his tangent. "Let's go get old What's-his-nose and head out."
"You know, he does have a name..." Hagmore said, scratching his chin. "But I can't think of it for the life of me. How odd..."
"It started with an 'H', I think," Ari supplied.
"What was it...Health? No, that's not right..."
You can see why I want to die.
"I got it!" Julio exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "Neutron!"
There was a dumb silence. "Julio, that starts with an 'N', not an 'H'. Besides, who would name their daughter Neutron?" Hagmore asked.
"Wait, was he a she?" Zan asked, looking a little bewildered.
"I'm almost positive it was a she. Or a he."
"Maybe it was just an it. It could've been a demon."
"You're almost right," Alexander said casually. "But not quite. He is a he. And there are girls I know named Neutron."
There was another dumb silence. "How do you know?" Zan challenged.
"Because I'm the bishounen. I know more than all of you combined plus a hyperbolic chicken. And his name is Heath."
"That's it!" Ari said, punching her palm. "I was this close to figuring it out."
"Does this mean we get to hear his backstory?" Julio asked anxiously. Alexander took a step back from him.
"Well, that's actually not scripted till later on in the game, but..." he stuttered out.
"TELL."
"Right on. Heath is an inter-dimensional shifting being known as a Demi. They're called that because they live on the plane just below the Gods. So, in a way, they're like demigods. Heath comes from the Plane of Darkness, where he rules over the people there as Lord. Coming here put a damper on his powers, so he can't utilize his full potential until the seals are broken. Just last disk, when he finished off Mark, he had broken the third seal. I don't know how many seals there are, but it seems like there are a lot."
There was yet another silence. All this backstory was annoying. Good thing I wasn't actually there.
"Wow," Hagmore said after a while. "We have a really strange crew here, don't we?"
"You have no idea, boy," Alexander said under his breath.
"Well, now that we know we've been traveling with a demigod, we should be able to make things indefinitely easier!" Julio shouted triumphantly. Everyone stared at him.
"And just how will that make things easier?" Hagmore asked in a worried voice. "It just keeps getting more and more confusing!"
"Simple!" Julio responded eagerly, shaking his finger at Hagmore. "If What's-his-nose's power is mostly being sealed, then think of how powerful he'd be if it weren't sealed! You saw how much damage he did to Mark. That was almost as much as one of Alexander's more powerful summons! If we can go and find those other seals, and break them, he'll be back to full power, and we can end this evil in one quick shot!"
There was the longest silence that I've ever heard of right then. Finally, Cat said, "Julio, that was so dumb that it's pure genius. Why didn't anyone think of that earlier? Arrgh! That means we could have done that years ago, if we had known! Why didn't he tell us?"
"Actually, he did..." Alexander said quietly. "But no one ever listened to him. Heath's been cursed for a long time now, and you people only know he's alive due to plot. And now, at the most inconvenient time, I'm going to go shut up and not say anymore." With that, he did. There was a pause while everyone glared at him, then turned back to each other.
"Well, then, we can use Julio's idea and go searching for the seals on Heath," Hagmore said. "But we have to remember about the curse, and try and fight through it. As soon as he gets enough power back, he should be able to break the curse on his own, and then things will become much easier."
"Sounds good," Zan said, "but where the hell is he?"
"He went to the library, remember?" Ari said, smacking Zan on the head. "Let's go!" With that, they all charged out of the Elder's house, who had been completely forgotten, and was sitting, looking very confused. After a moment, he sighed and walked over to a table, where a small radio was sitting. He tapped in a few things, then sat back and waited.
Meanwhile, after that bizarre scene, the group went through the streets looking for the library. It wasn't hard to find, being the biggest building in the city. They entered, and it was time for more plot.
I stood in one of the furthest corners, paging through a book, idly looking for any hint to cure myself. It didn't look like there was anything. With a sigh, I put the book back and hit my head against the bookshelf. "Nothing there, either. Isn't there any other way...?" I grabbed another book and started paging through it. "Damn that girl...Do I have to meet..." My thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the rest of the crew.
"Hey, uh, Heath!" Julio said. I looked at him for a long time before setting down the book I was holding.
"Okay, what do you want from me, and how can you see me for once?" I asked bluntly. Julio floundered for a moment.
"Alexander told us your backstory," Cat said, "though I'd like to know how he knew it, myself." She gave him a glare. He backed up a bit and whistled a tune. I sighed.
"So, at least you understand?" There were blank looks. "Why I'm here. Why I'm with you people. And what I have to do."
"Well, only the last part," Zan admitted. "But, we do get the part about you being super powerful! So we decided to help you look for those seals, and then we can defeat the evil that could be threatening the world!" There was a general agreement from everyone. I simply looked up towards the windows that allowed what little light there was remaining in the day to seep in.
"Find...the seals, huh." I smiled slightly. "You don't understand at all, then."
"Well, with that settled, we should go find an inn! I could use a good sleep," Hagmore announced. They all turned and walked off, chatting away about whatever. Alexander stayed behind.
"They don't understand," was all I said. Alexander shrugged.
"Give them time. They're a little headstrong, but they're good people. Maybe they're what you need."
"I can't expect them to understand," I said, ignoring the bishounen. "How can they understand? The seals aren't anyone's...but it could be the thing I need to get out." With that cryptic conversation done, I walked after them, content to angst in the peace of company.
We slept. It seems like it's been about seven days since we last slept, but this is in-game time. There is no real 'day' and 'night'. Until you go to an inn, or plot inspires it to be so. With all of us decked out in new equipment, we set off.
We didn't get far from the town when Julio suddenly stopped and started rummaging through the item bag. We stopped and watched him idly. "What are you looking for?" Ari asked, bemused.
"Just a moment...aha!" he cried triumphantly, pulling a small, black oval out. We all stared at it in wonder. "Here we go!"
"Just...what the hell...is it?" Hagmore asked, scratching his head.
"Need you ask? It is the bullet for my Desert Eagle! The Seraph gave me this when we met it. I almost forgot about it!" He looked about anxiously. "Dammit! No random enemies! But I HAVE to try this thing out! Aha! That tree!" He pointed to a nearby tree. It was a very ordinary tree. Julio whipped out his gun and loaded the bullet in. He took expert aim and fired.
The results were definitely NOT what anyone expected. The tree was completely and utterly destroyed. And when I say destroyed, I mean DESTROYED. The poor thing was obliterated in a single blow. But that wasn't the end of it.
From the remains of the tree came a large, black-cloaked creature. It held a scythe in one hand, and the power of God in the other. It was not a pretty sight to see. However, before it could say anything, the shockwave from the bullet being fired hit it and annihilated it in one blow. The bullet struck the mountains a good distance away and carved Julio's face in it, with only a 0.03% error. We all sat and stared. After a good long while, someone asked, "What just happened?"
Julio managed to come out of shock, and then pumped his hands into the air. "Booya! Who is the man now? I think that the answer is clear! Shazaam!" He did a happy dance as everyone continued to stare.
"Um..." Zan asked, slowly, "what...was that thing...that he killed?"
I pulled out the Strategy Guide and paged through it. "Looks like it was the hidden boss that's more powerful than the final boss. He really took care of that mother." There was a silence.
"Wait a minute!" Julio shouted, looking around. "If I just killed it, then where's my EXP?"
"Well, being that the battle didn't even start, there was no way for you to even get the experience," I said blandly, putting away the guide.
Julio stared blankly for a moment, then punched the ground. "DAMN IT! Now that really sucks! Wait...that means..." His eyes grew large. "If that killed the super mega boss in one blow...I COULD HAVE KILLED THE FINAL BOSS IN ONE HIT! Do you know how awesome that would have been? I would have more bragging rights than God!" Julio sat down and hit himself in the head with a large rock, yelling, "Damn it!" every time he did.
After Julio got over his angst, we kept going. We walked for a good long time. It was nice scenery, with the birds chirping and soothing new BGM playing. I didn't really like the old one. This one was very calming - which didn't seem to fit the plot line. Then someone asked, "Where are we going?"
Everyone stopped. The birds all died. The BGM cracked and spun into oblivion. The world spun the wrong way for a moment. I hit myself in the head. I should have known this would have happened. "You know, we never really did figure that out. Where do we go?" Hagmore asked.
No one said anything.
"Well, that's just fine and dandy," Zan said sarcastically. "Where can we go? Plot didn't tell us to go anywhere."
"There was that town to the west..." Ari supplied. Cat shook her head.
"The only access to that town is by boat. And even then, it's through a huge mountain range. We have no access there yet." Cat sighed. "This sucks. We really don't have anywhere to go, do we?"
"The only was we can go right now is to backtrack," Alexander said calmly.
"Well, might as well. Who knows, we might find a sidequest!" Julio said confidently. With that, we marched off, back to the cave we came through.
As we entered the cave, we saw that damn door again. Across a shallow pool. And we couldn't walk to it. Until...
"Uh...why is a turtle floating back and forth in front of that door?"
"Obviously, we can use it to jump across!" Julio shouted happily.
"Right...why couldn't we just walk across?"
"I don't want to get my shoes wet! These cost me $60!" Cat said violently.
"I don't understand people..."
Well, we hopped across. Leading us into a series of bizarre looking caves that twisted and turned. We walked through, fighting off the monsters that had become more powerful than before. We walked through one last doorway and...
...appeared inside of a castle. That really threw me off. It's not often you just show up in a random castle. While walking underground. Well, not one to ask questions, we kept going, still being attacked by the weird random monsters.
After some time, we came across an engine room. That's even more odd to find in a castle. However, that was the least of our worries. Standing there, in the middle of the room, was Seniana. She still looked the same, but very pissed to see us.
"Well, I was wondering how long it would take you people," she snarled, not one bit too happy. "Now it's time to send you all to Hell. I won't let this time be a repeat of what happened last time." With the formalities done, she drew her ninja swords and advanced.
"Hold it!" Hagmore yelled. "Why are you fighting us? Why do you want to kill us?"
"Why else?" she yelled back. "To get my vengeance! I will not allow my brethren to be lost forever! And for that, I'll kill you all!" She spun her swords and swung them across, creating a burning wave that forced us to scatter.
"What do you mean?" Ari asked, as confused as everyone else.
"If you people only want to damn their names even more by not even admitting to your crimes, then you deserve to die even more!" She flipped one sword around and pointed, shouting "Flame Wave!" A burst of flame engulfed part of the room. Ari and Hagmore were caught up in the flames.
"Megaton Crush!" Julio shouted, striking the floor with his fist. The ground around Seniana exploded, causing her to loose her spell. Alexander cast a quick healing spell on Ari and Hagmore. Cat threw several ninja stars, which Seniana easily caught.
"I won't be beaten by simple tricks like these!" she shouted, throwing them at Alexander. He took some hefty damage from the blow.
"Ice Storm!" Zan shouted, causing sheets of ice to spray out. Seniana was engulfed in the ice, but only for a moment. She burst out in a blast of flame. Hagmore rushed in and tried to hit her with his sword, but she easily dodged it. She then made good use of her ninja swords. Hagmore was nearly diced apart by the twirling blades, only surviving due to his hefty armor.
"Hagmore! Move!" Ari shouted, hefting up a boiler pot. Hagmore rolled to the side as Ari shot out a missile from the pot. Seniana threw up a shield, the explosion dealing no damage.
"Blitz Crash!" Cat shouted, and bursts of lightning filled the room, striking at Seniana. She simply kept the shield up.
"This is impossible," Julio growled. "If we can't hit her, then we have no chance. We need to break that shield!"
"But how?" Ari asked, looking a bit scared.
I sighed. "Oh, hell, this is gonna be a run." With that, I stepped out of the shadows, and into the plot.
Seniana took just one look at me before shouting, "You!" and throwing another Flame Wave at me. I took negative damage, restoring my HP. Thank god for elemental defense. Swearing, she shouted, "Burst Wave!" causing a more powerful wave of fire to hit me. Again, HP recovery.
"You know," I said calmly, "you should really check you opponents strengths before the battle." I glanced to the side. This little pause in fighting was enough to get Hagmore and Alexander healed up.
"I won't let you get away this time! Heretic Heath! You will no longer walk this world again!" With that said, she crossed her arms across her chest and muttered something, ending by pointing and shouting, "Hell Breaker!" A burst of Holy magic surrounded me and exploded.
"Is that all you have?" I asked as the light cleared. "You should know that any of your attacks are worthless against me. We are the same alignment, after all. But," I drew my wakizashi, "mine are much more effective than yours." I rushed her, being much faster than her. She tried to use her ninja swords, but her reflexes were too slow. I easily got around her and struck her in the back three times. She tried to spin and hit me, but I did several back handsprings to avoid it.
"Far too slow," I said critically. "You have no really extensive battle experience, either. Should fix that."
"Shut up and die!" she shouted. "You may be more powerful than me, but I will not die until you have paid for the pain!" She rushed me again. Her blades moved like blurs, but so did mine. The few hits that did connect did little damage to me. When she stopped, I quickly did a roundhouse kick to her face. She stood up slowly, blood running down her face.
"Now's our chance!" Julio shouted. "C'mon, Hagmore!" The two struck a pose.
"Dual Tech!" They crossed swords. "Holy Flame Cross!" Julio jumped up while Hagmore rushed in. Her struck her and jumped over her. He spun in midair and cast a powerful Fire spell. As Seniana burned, Julio came down in a spiral. Murderous damage was dealt.
"Hell Storm!" Zan shouted, burning Seniana even more. She still didn't move to defend. What was she planning?
"Holy ver. 2.3!" Alexander shouted. The newly released version of Holy slapped her for more damage. We paused in our assault as Seniana started laughing.
"Ha ha ha...is this all you have?" She raised her head to look at us with murderous eyes. "If this is all, then I wonder how Mark actually lost to you! Perhaps he can stand to spend some time in the Sphere as well!" She lifted her blades. "Now, feel an Ultimate Technique!"
"Cross winds of Hell..." She crossed the blades in front of her, and they began to glow a bright white. "White blades cutting through the winds of time." The power that was emanating from her was overwhelming. It was actually causing the engines in the room to shake and rattle. We all had to balance to keep on our feet. "Twin Hell Final Skill! Mirage Demons! Slayer Frontal Wind!" With that, we were able to witness the most beautiful and deadly killing attack ever created. Not like that's ever a good thing when you're on the receiving end of it.
She came flying in at us, spiraling like a blazing white tornado. Then she split into three. If they were mirages like the skill implied, then they were pretty damn real. We all took serious damage from the blow. Alexander and Ari were both 'killed' in the first few blows. Hagmore was brought to almost no HP. Julio managed to defend against two of the attacks, leaving him simply in the yellow. Zan was only hit once, but he still was almost dead. Cat and I both had high Eva%, so we avoided most of the blows.
"Ha ha ha..." Seniana laughed, softly, then increasingly louder. "That was pathetic! You all barely stood up to that! I will win!" Grinning ear to ear, she crossed her blades again. "Now, to end your lives. Cross winds of Hell..."
"...Mirage Demons, Slayer Frontal Wind!" The words didn't come from Seniana. Well, who else could it be? I don't think I need to tell you for you to figure it out.
As Seniana looked baffled for a moment, that was when the attack struck. The three images of Catriana all converged on Seniana, each one hacking away at her. With ultimate damage being dealt out, it wasn't long before she died. As Cat pulled back, Seniana fell to her knees, her ninja swords clattering to the ground.
"H-how...?" she whispered, trying to hold all of her wounds at once. It wasn't working too well. Blood was almost pouring out of her, creating a growing puddle on the floor. "It can't be...how do you know that skill...?" She suddenly coughed, and a spray of blood spewed forth. Unable to stay upright, she managed to open a portal and fell backwards into it.
Victory dance. Gained EXP and GP. The group all gathered together, then split apart to talk. What the hell? I don't know. Nor do I want to try and figure it out.
"Okay, I want to know what just happened," Ari said.
"Weren't you just dead?"
"I...I don't know what happened," Cat stammered, looking rather confused herself. "It's just, when she used that attack, it just brought back an old memory, and I realized I knew the attack...so I thought I would stop her from killing everyone else."
"Whoa...trippy," Zan said. There were nods of agreement.
"Well, at any rate, we know that we've got some kind of group against us now," Julio said calmly. "We need to find some way to really fight back against them. We can't keep relying on random plot holes to suddenly save us. We're going to need superior equipment! Weapons that can crush the gods! Or at least a tree!"
"I agree! And what better, than to go searching on individual quests to find it?" Hagmore said excitedly.
"I couldn't have said it better myself!" Julio said, slapping him on the back. "So here's the plan. We'll all split up and go searching for new and improved equipment on our own, since that's what the mandate of heaven is telling us to do. We'll meet back here in...say, two weeks? That should be enough time. If you're going to be late, send a letter. Sound good?" Everyone else nodded (except me). "Alright! Break!" They all clapped and ran in different directions. Except they didn't get far, since we were still underground, in a castle. I hate it when people are stupid.
"Um...how do we get out?" Zan asked. To answer his question, the ground suddenly shook, and the engines started to life. After a few minutes, we managed to get to our feet and explore.
Outside the room, we were confronted by some guards who appeared there all of a sudden. "How did you get in here? Were you the ones who stalled the engines?" One asked rather threateningly.
"Uh...no..." Hagmore said worriedly. "We did beat up someone who was in there, though."
"Really? Thank you!" Confused looks. "We were traveling underground, and something jammed our engine. But no one could get to it. So now we can surface!"
With that in hand, we were treated to a nice cut scene of the castle. It rose up out of the water, looking very majestic and such. "You know, how do you manage to not get water in the engines?"
"With magical water-proof walls!"
"...That's so dumb it makes sense."
After the long revealing sequence, the guards took us to see the king. I could see where this was going.
To be continued.
Uh.
That's all I have to say right now. With what just happened, my head is hurting like a mother. And I'm not the only one. Everyone else is sitting around, trying to figure out what just happened as well. Hagmore is putting together several notes to try and sort things out, with the help of Ari and Cat. Julio went into a coma about ten minutes after the fight with Mark. Zan's INT stat actually temporarily decreased from everything. Alexander, of course, knows everything, and is very smug about it.
"...Okay..." Hagmore said after about three hours of pondering. "I think I kinda figured it out here." He looked at a very scribbled page, filled with all kinds of little side notes.
"Well? What's the verdict?" Ari asked.
"Okay...Julio and Zan met up with this Seraph thing a while ago, before we all met back together. They got some sweet abilities, but it seems to have been at a price. Zan turned into an undead Lich, despite the fact that he looks perfectly human, and Julio...well, he's in a coma, so..."
"That's pretty much what happened," Zan said, holding an ice pack to his head.
"Secondly, Sifian was killed because he was too much towards an alignment, instead of being neutral. From what I gathered, he would have been something like a Neutral Evil."
"Right on the mark there."
"And Mark is a minion working with Seniana for some greater power that wants us dead...or at least, out of commission. At the least, he managed to delay our progress with more plot."
"What a cruel way to plan something like that..." Cat said, shivering.
"On the plus side, we all class-upped, or gained some extra power, or something. Despite the fact that Alexander and Heath didn't even meet with the Seraph, they still seem to be stronger with us. While confusing, we can all simply say, 'Okay', and just keep going."
There was a bit of silence as we digested the info. "Well," Cat said, "before we leave, there's a big library in this town. I'd like to check it out for a while first. I mean, there's soooo much I have to study before the next school year starts, and I only got a 34 on the ACT, so I should really be studying..."
"Which is more important..." I asked, slamming my head on a table, "studying or saving the world from devastation by God?"
There was a silence. I realized what I had said, and promptly wished I hadn't. Everyone was staring at me again. Alexander clicked his tongue in admonishment. "Bad move," was all he said, before continuing to knit some mittens.
"When you say, 'devastation by God'," Hagmore said slowly, "You mean that in a metaphorical way, right?"
I sighed. They were too interested. I could never talk my way out of this. By probability, they were going to pay attention to me until I told them what I meant. I hate plot sometimes.
"Look, what's the main plot for all of the really good games these days?" I asked bluntly. "Something that involves killing God or destroying a religion, that's what. Look at Breath of Fire 2 and 3. Look at FF X and Tactics. Hell, look at Xenogears, the best of them all. And since this is supposed to be a damn good game, we need some sort of questionable ethics here. So why not talk about fighting God and going against all the rules of the ruling church, which is really corrupt and evil?"
Well, it got them to shut up, at least.
"Wait, wait...so you're saying we're supposed to go out and just start fighting the Church? Why would I do that? I was just a Paladin of the Church! The Church is not corrupt or anything you say!" I knew this was going to happen - better to get it out sooner than later. I slapped a hand on Hagmore's shoulder.
"Well, it doesn't matter if you believe me or not. You will find whatever the real truth is soon enough." I started to walk out, then paused. "Then, you can make your own opinions. But for now, concentrate on what's the real problem at hand. I'm going to the library." With that, I walked out.
Thankfully, the attention still stayed focused on the main party. They were all looking at each other a bit worriedly. Alexander was still quite calm. "Don't worry yourselves about him so much," he said calmly, still knitting. "This is something he's been at for years now. His backstory goes farther back than any of you can guess. He'll get over his emotions soon enough."
With that, Julio magically came out of his coma, and the group, minus me, hit the town. At some point while we were gone, the arsenals had restocked with much better equipment, so we went and bought new stuff to replace our old equipment. Those who class-changed could now use much better armor, so weak stuff was removed. They all looked a lot better, too. After buying some extra items that we had used, the ransacking of homes began. I love that ability in RPG's. One can go into someone's house and just take all their stuff. It's so nice.
While that was happening, they also talked with townspeople. And gained a lot of insight as to the future of this game. Apparently, an empire across the seas was starting a build-up of military weaponry. This was not a good sign. If they started to look overseas for conquering, then our plot would probably get suspended further than it already has. Also, a nearby town had apparently made a rare discovery - but no one knew what this discovery even was. Communications with the town had been cut off. It looked promising.
Finally, they entered the last house to ransack. Which was also the Elder's house. After taking his Elixir from his clock, Julio walked up and talked to him. And drama began.
"Greetings, travelers. What brings you to this distant town?" the Elder asked.
"Well, we were kinda here for the thing in the caves, but..." Julio trailed off, not sure what else we were here for. No one really knows. The Elder nodded.
"Ah, you wish to see the Seraph? We try not to let to many people near the mines these days. The monsters that have infested them are considerably powerful. Not many go in and come back out - in one piece, that is."
Zan raised his hand. "No, we already saw it."
The Elder took a step back. "Y-you what? You saw it? But how? Those who meet the Seraph are doomed for eternal punishment!"
"Poor Sifian, then." Zan muttered under his breath.
"You saw it? And did you speak with it? Did it grant you its power?" the Elder asked eagerly. Julio took a step back.
"Well...yeah, we did. Why wouldn't we?" The Elder went into shock.
"Impossible! No one has ever spoken with the Seraph and come back! Who are you people?"
They all looked at each other. "Well," Julio started, "I'm Julio, this is Zan, this is..."
"No, that's not what I mean! What are you? How can you speak with it?" The Elder seemed rather stressed about it. I would be too. Julio scratched his head.
"Well...me and Zan were both here when the Seraph first fell, and we talked with it then..." Julio didn't get to finish, since the Elder had a coronary right then and there. After getting him to settle down a bit, we got to plot.
"...now, then, why don't you tell everything about your meeting with the Seraph?" he asked, a bit calmer than he had been.
"Well..." Julio started, "after running through those caves, we got to the Seraph thing, and we talked with it, and it said, you know, 'I WILL GIVE YOU POWER', and we were all like, 'sw33t', and it was all like, 'YOU AREN'T COOL ENOUGH FOR POWAA', and Sifian went, 'arrgh', and then..."
"You know, how about I tell this story?" Cat said, a little peeved. As Julio continued to use hand puppets to display HIS Version of the Story(, Cat started on the real thing - without ninjas, mind you. That addition makes Julio's a lot cooler, I think. After a quick dimming of the screen, the story was finished. "...and that's about all that happened," she finished. There was a pause as the Elder digested the info.
"Most intriguing...so that was how it decided who received power? Quite amazing..." he sat in thought. Then something occurred to him. "But what about your first encounter with the Seraph? What happened then?"
There was a silence. Everyone was looking at the two in the room who had been there. Julio was still going off on a tangent, so that left Zan, who was calmly sitting, drinking tea. After a pause, he glanced up and saw everyone staring at him. "What?"
"With Julio the way he is, you're the only one who knows what happened back then," Ari said, rather menacingly. "Why don't you tell us all about it?"
"Uh...cause..." Zan floundered for a moment, then pointed. "I see a flashback coming!"
"Dammit."
The screen darkened for a moment, then we were shown the past. "Curses, it seems I'll still have to tell you," Zan muttered. "Well, al those years ago, when we were all still kids, we got our first sidequest. It wasn't anything big at first - just go and give this jewel to this guy over there, bring this towel to that other guy, give that one guy a piece of repossessed dirt cloth, simple stuff. But then, we took a sidequest from a mayor of a wealthy town."
"That wouldn't be such a problem, except this guy had a lot of people who hated him. So we were working for him, meaning they were after us, too. Unknown to us, we were followed as we went out on the quest we had been assigned. It was to kill a monster that had inhabited a mountain nearby. It had been attacking travelers and making it harder for traders to get in or out."
"Wait a minute," Hagmore interrupted. "If we were all still together, why don't I remember any of this?"
Cat nodded fiercely in agreement. "Same here. I can't remember any of this."
"Jeez, just hang on a minute, okay? I can't cover everything at once. Anyway, we went, and after a long, hard battle, we managed to kill the monster. After collecting the treasures around, we went back. And that was where the trouble started."
"While we were gone, the mayor's enemies had decided that the time had come to strike. They invaded his house and killed him and most everyone in the house. Only some servants and maids made it out alive. That's what we came back to. A slaughterhouse."
"But that wasn't all. Not everyone had left when we returned, and we were attacked by several of the enemies. After some fighting, we made it to the mayor's office, where we found him dead. However, there was also a mage there, and a rather powerful one, at that. He defeated us without any problem, and then used a mass teleportation spell to send us to the far reaches of the earth. However, the spell also seemed to cause some sort of memory loss, since when I awoke, I couldn't remember what had happened for the last few weeks. After I met up again with Julio, when we met the Seraph, our memories were restored. We managed to get everyone back together after some traveling, and here we are now."
The screen returned to normal. There was a silence from everyone. "But...why?" Ari asked. "Why would they want to erase our memories? That doesn't make sense. We were just kids at the time. What could we have done?"
"A lot of things," Alexander said calmly. "You'd be surprised at what children have done in the past." Zan nodded.
"We seemed to be no exception. Especially since we knew their secret."
"Their...secret?" Cat asked, head cocked sideways.
"We found that the group was hiding an illegal smuggling ring, as well as running a slave trade. That was what they were going to use us for, but that mage saw something in that future that disturbed him enough to want to get us away from them instead of capturing us. Whatever it was, we may never know." Zan sat down and sipped his tea. There was a silence, then he said, "...I'm done now."
Everyone let out a breath and relaxed. "Well, with that all done, we should go find our next destination. What can you tell us, old man?" Hagmore asked.
"I'm afraid I can be of no help to you people. With all that I have heard, it seems you have visited every town on this continent. The only other place that could hold answers is the southern continent." The old man sighed. "Unfortunately, the Emperor there has gotten rather ambitious these days, and looks to be preparing for domination. There won't be any ships headed that way."
There was a general sigh from around the room. "Well, I'm sure we'll find a way there," Julio said, coming out of his tangent. "Let's go get old What's-his-nose and head out."
"You know, he does have a name..." Hagmore said, scratching his chin. "But I can't think of it for the life of me. How odd..."
"It started with an 'H', I think," Ari supplied.
"What was it...Health? No, that's not right..."
You can see why I want to die.
"I got it!" Julio exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "Neutron!"
There was a dumb silence. "Julio, that starts with an 'N', not an 'H'. Besides, who would name their daughter Neutron?" Hagmore asked.
"Wait, was he a she?" Zan asked, looking a little bewildered.
"I'm almost positive it was a she. Or a he."
"Maybe it was just an it. It could've been a demon."
"You're almost right," Alexander said casually. "But not quite. He is a he. And there are girls I know named Neutron."
There was another dumb silence. "How do you know?" Zan challenged.
"Because I'm the bishounen. I know more than all of you combined plus a hyperbolic chicken. And his name is Heath."
"That's it!" Ari said, punching her palm. "I was this close to figuring it out."
"Does this mean we get to hear his backstory?" Julio asked anxiously. Alexander took a step back from him.
"Well, that's actually not scripted till later on in the game, but..." he stuttered out.
"TELL."
"Right on. Heath is an inter-dimensional shifting being known as a Demi. They're called that because they live on the plane just below the Gods. So, in a way, they're like demigods. Heath comes from the Plane of Darkness, where he rules over the people there as Lord. Coming here put a damper on his powers, so he can't utilize his full potential until the seals are broken. Just last disk, when he finished off Mark, he had broken the third seal. I don't know how many seals there are, but it seems like there are a lot."
There was yet another silence. All this backstory was annoying. Good thing I wasn't actually there.
"Wow," Hagmore said after a while. "We have a really strange crew here, don't we?"
"You have no idea, boy," Alexander said under his breath.
"Well, now that we know we've been traveling with a demigod, we should be able to make things indefinitely easier!" Julio shouted triumphantly. Everyone stared at him.
"And just how will that make things easier?" Hagmore asked in a worried voice. "It just keeps getting more and more confusing!"
"Simple!" Julio responded eagerly, shaking his finger at Hagmore. "If What's-his-nose's power is mostly being sealed, then think of how powerful he'd be if it weren't sealed! You saw how much damage he did to Mark. That was almost as much as one of Alexander's more powerful summons! If we can go and find those other seals, and break them, he'll be back to full power, and we can end this evil in one quick shot!"
There was the longest silence that I've ever heard of right then. Finally, Cat said, "Julio, that was so dumb that it's pure genius. Why didn't anyone think of that earlier? Arrgh! That means we could have done that years ago, if we had known! Why didn't he tell us?"
"Actually, he did..." Alexander said quietly. "But no one ever listened to him. Heath's been cursed for a long time now, and you people only know he's alive due to plot. And now, at the most inconvenient time, I'm going to go shut up and not say anymore." With that, he did. There was a pause while everyone glared at him, then turned back to each other.
"Well, then, we can use Julio's idea and go searching for the seals on Heath," Hagmore said. "But we have to remember about the curse, and try and fight through it. As soon as he gets enough power back, he should be able to break the curse on his own, and then things will become much easier."
"Sounds good," Zan said, "but where the hell is he?"
"He went to the library, remember?" Ari said, smacking Zan on the head. "Let's go!" With that, they all charged out of the Elder's house, who had been completely forgotten, and was sitting, looking very confused. After a moment, he sighed and walked over to a table, where a small radio was sitting. He tapped in a few things, then sat back and waited.
Meanwhile, after that bizarre scene, the group went through the streets looking for the library. It wasn't hard to find, being the biggest building in the city. They entered, and it was time for more plot.
I stood in one of the furthest corners, paging through a book, idly looking for any hint to cure myself. It didn't look like there was anything. With a sigh, I put the book back and hit my head against the bookshelf. "Nothing there, either. Isn't there any other way...?" I grabbed another book and started paging through it. "Damn that girl...Do I have to meet..." My thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the rest of the crew.
"Hey, uh, Heath!" Julio said. I looked at him for a long time before setting down the book I was holding.
"Okay, what do you want from me, and how can you see me for once?" I asked bluntly. Julio floundered for a moment.
"Alexander told us your backstory," Cat said, "though I'd like to know how he knew it, myself." She gave him a glare. He backed up a bit and whistled a tune. I sighed.
"So, at least you understand?" There were blank looks. "Why I'm here. Why I'm with you people. And what I have to do."
"Well, only the last part," Zan admitted. "But, we do get the part about you being super powerful! So we decided to help you look for those seals, and then we can defeat the evil that could be threatening the world!" There was a general agreement from everyone. I simply looked up towards the windows that allowed what little light there was remaining in the day to seep in.
"Find...the seals, huh." I smiled slightly. "You don't understand at all, then."
"Well, with that settled, we should go find an inn! I could use a good sleep," Hagmore announced. They all turned and walked off, chatting away about whatever. Alexander stayed behind.
"They don't understand," was all I said. Alexander shrugged.
"Give them time. They're a little headstrong, but they're good people. Maybe they're what you need."
"I can't expect them to understand," I said, ignoring the bishounen. "How can they understand? The seals aren't anyone's...but it could be the thing I need to get out." With that cryptic conversation done, I walked after them, content to angst in the peace of company.
We slept. It seems like it's been about seven days since we last slept, but this is in-game time. There is no real 'day' and 'night'. Until you go to an inn, or plot inspires it to be so. With all of us decked out in new equipment, we set off.
We didn't get far from the town when Julio suddenly stopped and started rummaging through the item bag. We stopped and watched him idly. "What are you looking for?" Ari asked, bemused.
"Just a moment...aha!" he cried triumphantly, pulling a small, black oval out. We all stared at it in wonder. "Here we go!"
"Just...what the hell...is it?" Hagmore asked, scratching his head.
"Need you ask? It is the bullet for my Desert Eagle! The Seraph gave me this when we met it. I almost forgot about it!" He looked about anxiously. "Dammit! No random enemies! But I HAVE to try this thing out! Aha! That tree!" He pointed to a nearby tree. It was a very ordinary tree. Julio whipped out his gun and loaded the bullet in. He took expert aim and fired.
The results were definitely NOT what anyone expected. The tree was completely and utterly destroyed. And when I say destroyed, I mean DESTROYED. The poor thing was obliterated in a single blow. But that wasn't the end of it.
From the remains of the tree came a large, black-cloaked creature. It held a scythe in one hand, and the power of God in the other. It was not a pretty sight to see. However, before it could say anything, the shockwave from the bullet being fired hit it and annihilated it in one blow. The bullet struck the mountains a good distance away and carved Julio's face in it, with only a 0.03% error. We all sat and stared. After a good long while, someone asked, "What just happened?"
Julio managed to come out of shock, and then pumped his hands into the air. "Booya! Who is the man now? I think that the answer is clear! Shazaam!" He did a happy dance as everyone continued to stare.
"Um..." Zan asked, slowly, "what...was that thing...that he killed?"
I pulled out the Strategy Guide and paged through it. "Looks like it was the hidden boss that's more powerful than the final boss. He really took care of that mother." There was a silence.
"Wait a minute!" Julio shouted, looking around. "If I just killed it, then where's my EXP?"
"Well, being that the battle didn't even start, there was no way for you to even get the experience," I said blandly, putting away the guide.
Julio stared blankly for a moment, then punched the ground. "DAMN IT! Now that really sucks! Wait...that means..." His eyes grew large. "If that killed the super mega boss in one blow...I COULD HAVE KILLED THE FINAL BOSS IN ONE HIT! Do you know how awesome that would have been? I would have more bragging rights than God!" Julio sat down and hit himself in the head with a large rock, yelling, "Damn it!" every time he did.
After Julio got over his angst, we kept going. We walked for a good long time. It was nice scenery, with the birds chirping and soothing new BGM playing. I didn't really like the old one. This one was very calming - which didn't seem to fit the plot line. Then someone asked, "Where are we going?"
Everyone stopped. The birds all died. The BGM cracked and spun into oblivion. The world spun the wrong way for a moment. I hit myself in the head. I should have known this would have happened. "You know, we never really did figure that out. Where do we go?" Hagmore asked.
No one said anything.
"Well, that's just fine and dandy," Zan said sarcastically. "Where can we go? Plot didn't tell us to go anywhere."
"There was that town to the west..." Ari supplied. Cat shook her head.
"The only access to that town is by boat. And even then, it's through a huge mountain range. We have no access there yet." Cat sighed. "This sucks. We really don't have anywhere to go, do we?"
"The only was we can go right now is to backtrack," Alexander said calmly.
"Well, might as well. Who knows, we might find a sidequest!" Julio said confidently. With that, we marched off, back to the cave we came through.
As we entered the cave, we saw that damn door again. Across a shallow pool. And we couldn't walk to it. Until...
"Uh...why is a turtle floating back and forth in front of that door?"
"Obviously, we can use it to jump across!" Julio shouted happily.
"Right...why couldn't we just walk across?"
"I don't want to get my shoes wet! These cost me $60!" Cat said violently.
"I don't understand people..."
Well, we hopped across. Leading us into a series of bizarre looking caves that twisted and turned. We walked through, fighting off the monsters that had become more powerful than before. We walked through one last doorway and...
...appeared inside of a castle. That really threw me off. It's not often you just show up in a random castle. While walking underground. Well, not one to ask questions, we kept going, still being attacked by the weird random monsters.
After some time, we came across an engine room. That's even more odd to find in a castle. However, that was the least of our worries. Standing there, in the middle of the room, was Seniana. She still looked the same, but very pissed to see us.
"Well, I was wondering how long it would take you people," she snarled, not one bit too happy. "Now it's time to send you all to Hell. I won't let this time be a repeat of what happened last time." With the formalities done, she drew her ninja swords and advanced.
"Hold it!" Hagmore yelled. "Why are you fighting us? Why do you want to kill us?"
"Why else?" she yelled back. "To get my vengeance! I will not allow my brethren to be lost forever! And for that, I'll kill you all!" She spun her swords and swung them across, creating a burning wave that forced us to scatter.
"What do you mean?" Ari asked, as confused as everyone else.
"If you people only want to damn their names even more by not even admitting to your crimes, then you deserve to die even more!" She flipped one sword around and pointed, shouting "Flame Wave!" A burst of flame engulfed part of the room. Ari and Hagmore were caught up in the flames.
"Megaton Crush!" Julio shouted, striking the floor with his fist. The ground around Seniana exploded, causing her to loose her spell. Alexander cast a quick healing spell on Ari and Hagmore. Cat threw several ninja stars, which Seniana easily caught.
"I won't be beaten by simple tricks like these!" she shouted, throwing them at Alexander. He took some hefty damage from the blow.
"Ice Storm!" Zan shouted, causing sheets of ice to spray out. Seniana was engulfed in the ice, but only for a moment. She burst out in a blast of flame. Hagmore rushed in and tried to hit her with his sword, but she easily dodged it. She then made good use of her ninja swords. Hagmore was nearly diced apart by the twirling blades, only surviving due to his hefty armor.
"Hagmore! Move!" Ari shouted, hefting up a boiler pot. Hagmore rolled to the side as Ari shot out a missile from the pot. Seniana threw up a shield, the explosion dealing no damage.
"Blitz Crash!" Cat shouted, and bursts of lightning filled the room, striking at Seniana. She simply kept the shield up.
"This is impossible," Julio growled. "If we can't hit her, then we have no chance. We need to break that shield!"
"But how?" Ari asked, looking a bit scared.
I sighed. "Oh, hell, this is gonna be a run." With that, I stepped out of the shadows, and into the plot.
Seniana took just one look at me before shouting, "You!" and throwing another Flame Wave at me. I took negative damage, restoring my HP. Thank god for elemental defense. Swearing, she shouted, "Burst Wave!" causing a more powerful wave of fire to hit me. Again, HP recovery.
"You know," I said calmly, "you should really check you opponents strengths before the battle." I glanced to the side. This little pause in fighting was enough to get Hagmore and Alexander healed up.
"I won't let you get away this time! Heretic Heath! You will no longer walk this world again!" With that said, she crossed her arms across her chest and muttered something, ending by pointing and shouting, "Hell Breaker!" A burst of Holy magic surrounded me and exploded.
"Is that all you have?" I asked as the light cleared. "You should know that any of your attacks are worthless against me. We are the same alignment, after all. But," I drew my wakizashi, "mine are much more effective than yours." I rushed her, being much faster than her. She tried to use her ninja swords, but her reflexes were too slow. I easily got around her and struck her in the back three times. She tried to spin and hit me, but I did several back handsprings to avoid it.
"Far too slow," I said critically. "You have no really extensive battle experience, either. Should fix that."
"Shut up and die!" she shouted. "You may be more powerful than me, but I will not die until you have paid for the pain!" She rushed me again. Her blades moved like blurs, but so did mine. The few hits that did connect did little damage to me. When she stopped, I quickly did a roundhouse kick to her face. She stood up slowly, blood running down her face.
"Now's our chance!" Julio shouted. "C'mon, Hagmore!" The two struck a pose.
"Dual Tech!" They crossed swords. "Holy Flame Cross!" Julio jumped up while Hagmore rushed in. Her struck her and jumped over her. He spun in midair and cast a powerful Fire spell. As Seniana burned, Julio came down in a spiral. Murderous damage was dealt.
"Hell Storm!" Zan shouted, burning Seniana even more. She still didn't move to defend. What was she planning?
"Holy ver. 2.3!" Alexander shouted. The newly released version of Holy slapped her for more damage. We paused in our assault as Seniana started laughing.
"Ha ha ha...is this all you have?" She raised her head to look at us with murderous eyes. "If this is all, then I wonder how Mark actually lost to you! Perhaps he can stand to spend some time in the Sphere as well!" She lifted her blades. "Now, feel an Ultimate Technique!"
"Cross winds of Hell..." She crossed the blades in front of her, and they began to glow a bright white. "White blades cutting through the winds of time." The power that was emanating from her was overwhelming. It was actually causing the engines in the room to shake and rattle. We all had to balance to keep on our feet. "Twin Hell Final Skill! Mirage Demons! Slayer Frontal Wind!" With that, we were able to witness the most beautiful and deadly killing attack ever created. Not like that's ever a good thing when you're on the receiving end of it.
She came flying in at us, spiraling like a blazing white tornado. Then she split into three. If they were mirages like the skill implied, then they were pretty damn real. We all took serious damage from the blow. Alexander and Ari were both 'killed' in the first few blows. Hagmore was brought to almost no HP. Julio managed to defend against two of the attacks, leaving him simply in the yellow. Zan was only hit once, but he still was almost dead. Cat and I both had high Eva%, so we avoided most of the blows.
"Ha ha ha..." Seniana laughed, softly, then increasingly louder. "That was pathetic! You all barely stood up to that! I will win!" Grinning ear to ear, she crossed her blades again. "Now, to end your lives. Cross winds of Hell..."
"...Mirage Demons, Slayer Frontal Wind!" The words didn't come from Seniana. Well, who else could it be? I don't think I need to tell you for you to figure it out.
As Seniana looked baffled for a moment, that was when the attack struck. The three images of Catriana all converged on Seniana, each one hacking away at her. With ultimate damage being dealt out, it wasn't long before she died. As Cat pulled back, Seniana fell to her knees, her ninja swords clattering to the ground.
"H-how...?" she whispered, trying to hold all of her wounds at once. It wasn't working too well. Blood was almost pouring out of her, creating a growing puddle on the floor. "It can't be...how do you know that skill...?" She suddenly coughed, and a spray of blood spewed forth. Unable to stay upright, she managed to open a portal and fell backwards into it.
Victory dance. Gained EXP and GP. The group all gathered together, then split apart to talk. What the hell? I don't know. Nor do I want to try and figure it out.
"Okay, I want to know what just happened," Ari said.
"Weren't you just dead?"
"I...I don't know what happened," Cat stammered, looking rather confused herself. "It's just, when she used that attack, it just brought back an old memory, and I realized I knew the attack...so I thought I would stop her from killing everyone else."
"Whoa...trippy," Zan said. There were nods of agreement.
"Well, at any rate, we know that we've got some kind of group against us now," Julio said calmly. "We need to find some way to really fight back against them. We can't keep relying on random plot holes to suddenly save us. We're going to need superior equipment! Weapons that can crush the gods! Or at least a tree!"
"I agree! And what better, than to go searching on individual quests to find it?" Hagmore said excitedly.
"I couldn't have said it better myself!" Julio said, slapping him on the back. "So here's the plan. We'll all split up and go searching for new and improved equipment on our own, since that's what the mandate of heaven is telling us to do. We'll meet back here in...say, two weeks? That should be enough time. If you're going to be late, send a letter. Sound good?" Everyone else nodded (except me). "Alright! Break!" They all clapped and ran in different directions. Except they didn't get far, since we were still underground, in a castle. I hate it when people are stupid.
"Um...how do we get out?" Zan asked. To answer his question, the ground suddenly shook, and the engines started to life. After a few minutes, we managed to get to our feet and explore.
Outside the room, we were confronted by some guards who appeared there all of a sudden. "How did you get in here? Were you the ones who stalled the engines?" One asked rather threateningly.
"Uh...no..." Hagmore said worriedly. "We did beat up someone who was in there, though."
"Really? Thank you!" Confused looks. "We were traveling underground, and something jammed our engine. But no one could get to it. So now we can surface!"
With that in hand, we were treated to a nice cut scene of the castle. It rose up out of the water, looking very majestic and such. "You know, how do you manage to not get water in the engines?"
"With magical water-proof walls!"
"...That's so dumb it makes sense."
After the long revealing sequence, the guards took us to see the king. I could see where this was going.
To be continued.