Chapter 6, Cered and Molor. And not to mention those pesky golems…
"I take it 'Molor' is that snake?" Lai commented while the four quickly walked down the great corridor.
"Yes, but he's not dangerous, I assure you," Schala said with a glance over her shoulder.
She paused for a moment.
"Well, not to friends at least."
"And you called me and Glenn strange…"
"Without lying one bit, if I may speak my opinion," Janus commented and ducked.
Schala glanced at him with a twitching smile and a raised eyebrow.
"Are you sure that you are Janus?" she questioned.
"Pretty sure, yes," he replied, lightly tugging at a few blue strands of hair.
"When me and Cered were looking for you we searched many historical archives for records of a blue-haired boy," the princess said with a soft smile, "I can't say that it was very difficult once we moved a few hundred years past the first century. You left quite an imprint, little brother."
Janus would have smiled if it hadn't been for the obvious question.
"But if you knew where I was, then why didn't you come?" he wondered, without malice as he already had a strong clue.
"We tried," Schala said, pursing her mouth, "believe me, we tried. But it seemed like the late sixth and early seventh century were closed off, I couldn't open a time gate going there. I have a pocking feeling that it was Dalton's doing."
"Sounds quite sensible," Janus muttered, nodding.
They walked in silence for a short while until the wizard's mind caught up with something and he stopped planting the staff in the ground as he walked, holding it up with a quizzical look.
"By the way…"
At this time they had reached the end of the corridor, and Schala grunted slightly as she had to assemble even more cloth in her hands to make it down the stair. She looked around at her brother's half question, smiling a bit.
"It's funny that you'd chose that weapon as well," she softly said, "there were times when magic didn't suffice, therefore Cered talked me into using a weapon."
"I believeth I hath heard a whisper about something similar to thy fate," Frog commented, glancing up at Janus.
"Aye," the wizard nodded, reaching out an arm to squeeze Schala's shoulders while they reached the end of the stair, "that finalizes the fact that shared blood does create bonds. As long as one part don't try to kill off its offspring."
He added the last thing, throwing up his hands rather dramatically to emphasize how much he cared about Dalton's fall.
Schala looked at him.
"Are you sure that you are Janus?"
Lai loudly snickered, not even bothering to hide her smirk with her hand.
"Ah, Janus the motto-creator," she said, causing Frog to chuckle as well.
Schala glanced around with a carefully amused smile while Janus pressed his hand against his eyes with a groan.
"How so?" the blue-haired woman asked.
"In fair Guardia thy brother hast brought a saying upon himself," the knight rather cruelly grinned, "one known by the entire kingdom and widely used."
"Really? What then?"
Upon Schala's query Lai and Frog exchanged glances, then spoke simultaneously:
"'What has he done now!?'"
"Oh my."
Schala put her hand on her brother's shoulder.
"We will have to have a little talk, Janus," she said, trying to sound grim.
"I don't wanna!" he theatrically whined, despite the snicker silently cursing blond princesses and alternate reality monsters.
But Lai's cruel chuckle made any twists of character worth it. She needed all help her friends could possibly offer to get her mood truthfully up again.
The talking had made them slow down in their walk down the stair, but by now the four finally reached the floor and turned left to face a door hidden behind the dark steps leading up. The black metal made it look very resolute indeed, especially with the golden crest that reminded a little too much of the Mammon Machine. No keyhole nor a handle was to be seen.
"One would almost think that even Dalton would refrain from things like this after all that happened," Schala muttered, touching the smooth surface, "it's not a real magic door however… let's see…"
She raised her hand but froze with a wince, glaring at the purple, blood stained sleeve. There was one thing that she had managed to forget completely with all the confusion and excitement.
Frog put his hand on Janus' arm in a friendly gesture, closing his eyes to chant in a low voice.
"Thank you," Schala gratefully said as the stinging pain melted away under the soft light of the healing stars.
"Nothing to speak of," the knight kindly replied.
The princess' fingertips touched the crest's left arm and pushed it downwards, then lifted the right one.
With a light swooshing sound the door opened to reveal a duskier corridor than before; Janus' illumination spell hadn't reached inside here. That was easily mended however.
"Does he have any guards down here?" Lai asked while Janus lowered his hand, streaks of pure power rushing down the smooth walls to make things visible.
"It would surprise me if there was nothing at all," Schala grimly said, "though I doubt it'll be humans. Dalton seldom trusted people to guard important places, unless he was feeling cockier than usual."
"'Tis possible to be more arrogant?" Frog dryly asked, keeping his hand on the Masamune's hilt just to be sure.
Janus shrugged.
"I'm not sure," he thoughtfully said, "I've never seen anything like him. Not even Flea; he's more irritating than arrogant."
"Aye."
Schala glanced at her brother again.
"Flea, that was something else that I wanted to ask you about too," she said, frowning, "didn't the other grown you mention that his mentor's name was Flea?"
Pursing his mouth Janus nodded, without taking his eyes off the turn of the corridor ahead of them.
"But in the history books you two didn't seem to have a very friendly relationship," his sister pointed out.
The wizard clenched his teeth, still not looking around. He knew that there were things that his teacher had wanted to keep secret, but there seemed to be no way around it except lying. And he highly doubted he could keep a straight face when telling an untruth to Schala.
"The other me and his Flea weren't that good friends either," he murmured.
"It's not that Flea doesn't want to make friends with humans," Lai grunted before Janus could stop her, "it's just that he hates our guts except for when they're deep fried and served with rice."
Schala's eyes narrowed, slowly.
"Janus, was he…"
"He revenged himself with help from Crono and the others, that's why he came to save me," the wizard quickly cut her off.
"What did they put him through?" she pressed, frowning deeply.
But Janus was saved from having to answer that, as they entered a much bigger room at that very moment. And a small, bluish shadow dove for the wizard's hair since he had taken the lead.
Ducking, he punched at it since he didn't dare swing his staff with his companions just behind him. The blue scout swished away from the fist and fled back to the roof, from where half a dozen big eyes blinked down towards the intruders.
"Are you saying Dalton thought those things were better than humans?" Lai asked, disbelief tainting her sarcasm.
"Scouts are mainly used as spies, but they can be difficult to kill unless you know the right spells since they have been given incredible immunity," Schala briefly informed.
Lai glared as three pairs of eyes turned at her almost simultaneously.
"What?"
Her mind did a replay and caught on to the thirteenth word the princess had spoken. The young lady from Guardia frowned.
"Will I have to skin you alive to get respect back?" she coldly questioned and folded her arms, "seriously, one mental breakdown and… what are you doing?"
She raised an eyebrow as two red shapes fell to the floor, encircled with flames. Janus looked a little too innocent.
"Oh for heaven's sake!" Lai snorted, "you don't have to treat me like a baby!"
While she spoke, Frog had caught on and quickly drowned the fire of life in the soulless, blue little monster. Schala was no slower to neatly zap the remaining three yellow critters. Not that Lai would have been able to do anything against the last two sorts, but it maybe made the tallest one look a little less guilty if nothing else.
"We humbly apologize for the suspicion darkening your mind and pray to higher forces that you will realize that our actions are nothing but signs of affection," Janus said with a chuckle.
Lai rolled her eyes, but when she thought that nobody but the wizard saw it she briefly smiled back at him.
They continued across the empty, circular room and reached another corridor. Janus walked quickly, hoping that Schala's mind would stay off stories he wouldn't like telling. This wish made him feel almost relieved when he entered the next room and narrowly missed getting smashed by a gigantic, stony fist.
"Now these are guards!" he growled and somewhat clumsily dove further into the room while sending lightning bolts at the golem to divert its attention from those who made a tactical withdrawal into the corridor, where they couldn't be reached.
The beast roared, and it wasn't alone. Janus' eyes narrowed as he looked around to find two more giants lumbering at him from behind, their fists swinging madly as they moved. The first golem was clumsily turning, its tiny bead eyes burning with annoyance at the pesky midget.
Janus took a careful step back and almost fell over as his left foot didn't touch solid ground but what felt like a slippery cross above a void. For half a second he slipped, then his brain automatically clicked to activate the floating technique that he had learnt from spirit Flea. His balance was restored by the fact that it wasn't needed when he drifted upwards a few inches, breathing a sigh of relief.
Above his own breath he heard another sound, one that cut through the deafening crashes of moving golems. A hissing.
He threw a glance downwards, into the darkness below the bars that had caused him a moment of panic. A red ruby glistened back up at him, resting in a grayish, slowly swaying shape that was obscured by the weak light.
It felt as if something rooted within the wizard's mind and grew to gently fill any empty spaces in his soul, covering even the faintest feeling of loneliness with a soft mist.
The wizard of Guardia felt completion.
And he could finally feel the other being.
'Molor.'
'Friend.'
'Friend, yes.'
All this took merely a moment, during which the world faded.
But then it made itself known again.
'Look out!' Molor silently screamed.
Waking up from the brief trance with his mind clear as glass Janus dashed out of reach for the giant fist that shook the floor.
"What is happening up there?!" a man's voice came from the darkness, the words swimming in confusion and worry.
"We're coming for you, Cered!" Schala shouted, but her voice was nearly drowned in the flaring roar of Lai's fireballs.
The first golem fell forwards with a roar that spoke more of irritation than pain as the red orbs exploded upon touching its back, ripples of sand and small stones falling out of the holes in the massive body.
"Don't just stand there watching the scenery!" Lai snarled, drawing back to prepare another blast since her daggers would be rather useless against moving rocks.
Janus had no time to reply since Frog flew from the entrance in an impressive arc, turning the sacred blade to turn downward when his leap began to falter. The fallen golem angrily snarled as the Masamune plunged into its back, unlike a normal sword quite able to cut rock.
"Call upon lightning, Janus!" the green knight shouted, letting go of the hilt and quickly leaping backwards.
"I'm not Crono, but I'll let it slide!" the wizard called with a faint grin, "powers of the world…"
He didn't stand still for a second even as he chanted, running along the wall towards the corridor to get out of reach for the two other beasts.
Lightning bolts flared from his chest and obediently found their way to the convenient piece of metal. The unlucky golem screamed in real pain this time as the magical power surged though it and tore up any and all cracks available. The giant monster began falling to pieces, arms crashing into the floor as they disjointed.
But while Janus worked the spell itself, he had to stand still. His enemies might have had brains made of flint, but they weren't stupid enough to pass up on such a chance. The one furthest from Janus raised its massive fists, but not for a hit as he was still way out of reach. The other one swung closer towards the wizard, who couldn't take his eyes off the spell in order to control it. Though the fallen golem was crumbling it could still get up and put itself back together if released too soon. Only a couple of seconds… he would have wanted to use one single, deadly bolt, but the pressure would make it dangerous for the two prisoners below the floor. They couldn't risk that the ceiling of the dungeon fell inwards.
Seeing this, Frog moved backwards in the other end of the room, chanting hesitantly as he realized that something must be done, but without the Masamune he couldn't attack physically and Water didn't sound like the best weapon against stone.
"Voice" was not really a suitable label of the rumble that crawled out between the feet-long jaws, but it was still just barely distinct enough to recognize.
"Hey!" Lai growled in disbelief as she heard her own incantations being mimicked, raising her hands in an attempt to stop the attack.
"Laohn sha nebal!"
A glowing half moon cut through the air and buried itself between the bead eyes of the moving golem. It stumbled backwards in surprise. Frog immediately released his spell and a flood erupted a few feet in front of the front giant, sweeping it further backwards. Its flailing arm hit its chanting companion and broke the magic in the making momentarily.
"They can copy our magic powers!" Schala called at Lai, shouting to be heard above the violent fizzling of the remaining lightning.
She hadn't been able to hear her future sister in law's snarl, but it wasn't hard to read such an expression.
While the blue-haired woman still spoke, the magician-golem pushed his friend away and into the fading magic water in an attempt to finish the chanting. But before it even had time to properly raise its fists, the lightning bolts faded and Janus turned to the remaining two beasts. He didn't attack, instead casually backed with his staff held tightly as he tried to catch his breath. Something far back in his mind was muttering about that something was wrong, but it wasn't loud enough to prove itself important.
"Cometh, Masamune!" Frog called, holding out his hand.
The blade obediently rose above the rubble that was the remains of the first unlucky monster and flew to its owner. Used to the heat that the attack named Spire placed upon his weapon, the knight had already enclosed his gloves with gentle, magical water to be able to grip the hilt.
This didn't, of course, stop the golem's spell. Roaring it released gigantic, flaming balls that tore their way through the air and melted the metallic floor where Janus had been standing a heartbeat earlier. The wall was no better off, but though several holes were created, none of them was more than a couple of inches deep and thus didn't break through the building.
The fallen golem was getting to its feet.
"Any suggestions on how to finish this quickly?" Janus shouted, scowling.
It wasn't that he was loosing strength – though he was starting to feel a headache prickling the inside of his skull after all the magic he'd been using while straining his body for a long time. And apart from that he was starting to think that this took far longer than should be allowed. Being in his father's castle had never been anything he had planned to do, and it was getting on his nerves.
"A collective assault would bring the desired conclusion, I believe," Frog called, sounding somewhat amused at his friend's lack of patience.
"Sounds like a good idea…"
The wizard looked around at the women in the group, who nodded and smirked in reply. You may guess who did what, shouldn't be too hard in my humble opinion.
Schala held up her hands and two glowing half moons appeared in the grip while Lai crossed her wrists, bending her fingers slightly.
Frog and Janus exchanged glances.
'Something like Marle and Lucca's dear Antipode as they called it?' the wizard sent over.
'I live to serve,' the general replied, almost chuckling.
'So do I.'
"After you, ladies," Janus called.
"See? Our attempts to make him civilized did pay off even if it's rare that he rewards us!" Lai snickered to Schala.
The princess couldn't help but chuckle slightly.
"For that, I am grateful. I think," she murmured.
She squinted her eyes at the snarling golems who had used the precious seconds – that the humans had used for planning – to lumber forwards. The one who had used magic, farthest to the left, almost stood on the bar in the floor.
'Move, Water magic,' Janus warned Molor.
'See.'
The feeling, knowledge of how the other being moved was mesmerizing in its wondrous mystery. But Janus couldn't let himself get distracted by the fascination. The snake was rearranging his long body, laying himself like a wall before Cered to protect his chained fellow prisoner from the planned magic.
But they couldn't wait for him to settle completely, the golems were getting too close for comfort. Schala narrowed her eyes further as she aimed and flung the two half discs at the beasts, seeing that standing idle any longer could be dangerous.
She hit them both, the magic user successfully between the eyes, the second was luckier as the blade cut into its pointy head causing little less irritation. It distracted them long enough for Lai to set her spell free, sending two highly concentrated fireballs from each hand.
The golems roared as they were hit, even their hardened bodies glowing faintly as the waves of pure heat evaporated around them.
Perfect. Janus wasted no time calling for new powers while his friends worked their attacks.
"Crancha na lishoro!" Frog called, once again releasing the magical flood.
The water rushed over the golem's lower bodies, a cracking sound being heard as chill met heat. According to the sound they made, they both heard and felt it.
"Ta keich sanea wyh!" Janus ordered, his staff meeting the floor.
Gigantic blocks off ice materialized above the twitching monsters, smashing down on top of them. The weight and cold slammed into the red hot stone bodies, and they cracked. Rock and smaller stones thundered against the floor for several seconds before the demise of Dalton's pets was fulfilled.
Some water had of course rushed down into the prison through the – for liquid – poorly barricaded entrance. Janus' triumphant relief at the victory was broken by a wince at Molor's protesting snarl of pain even as the magic disintegrated.
"Cold!"
Schala was already hurrying towards the hole in the floor, falling to her knees and unceremoniously pushing rocks aside with no respect for her clothes. As nothing else seemed sensible, the three warriors from Guardia joined her.
"Are you alright?" the princess called down while her friends were still moving closer.
"Aye!" the man's voice called up, much more relieved than last time he had spoken, "I fear our comrade is less than amused however!"
There was an irritated hiss.
"Such was not my intention," Frog called, his voice holding a slight tension as he peeked into the darkness.
"Fine."
The voice was dry, like the rattling of dead leaves. But below the slight aggravation it almost sounded soft.
Janus raised an eyebrow.
"Is that snake… talking?" Lai slowly said, squinting at the dusk.
"Molor seldom says anything," Schala mildly said and shook her head, "this is the most talkative I have ever known him to be. He's quite special."
The grayish form grew out of the dusk again, but couldn't be viewed perfectly. The glistening, crimson eye that was turned upwards seemed to shine with its own light, however.
"Hurts my throat," Molor somewhat impatiently said.
That voice in Janus' head saying that something was wrong woke up again, and now he had enough time on his hands to realize what it meant too.
'It doesn't surprise me, in all honesty…' he thought to himself.
Then he lashed out his mind, calling through times and dimensions.
'There's something I think you should see.'
For half a heartbeat, there was no reply. Then a familiar sensation entered his mind.
'Yes?' the Pawn said, smiling faintly.
He looked around.
'Oh, I see. Congratulations, I just returned with Schala and the others to Cered's time,' he said in a rare, soft voice as he took in the view, 'what is Lai doing here, though?'
'Ah, I found she's… not Lucca's ancestor,' Janus replied, rather sheepishly.
The Pawn covered his lips with a hand, trying to conceal his smirk. While he did this, the Prince floated into existence with a deep sigh.
'I'm not hearing this,' he growled and rolled his eyes, 'I don't want the details.'
Janus had to fight a snicker.
'Oh wait you two, you haven't seen what I wanted to show you yet.'
"One moment, I'll open it," he said aloud, putting his staff aside.
He took a hold of the bars with his right hand, spreading the fingers of his left above the closed entrance.
"Powers of the world, lend me the power of Lightning!"
Tiny bolts hit the joints of the metal and would have given the wizard himself a few nasty shocks had he not controlled the magic so well, not allowing it to come back to him through his grip of the metal. With ease he stood, taking the grid with him.
"Stand back," Molor's raspy voice almost purred.
Finding it unwise to question him, the humans obediently took a few steps backwards.
'He's talking already?' the Prince said, raising his eyebrows in rare surprise.
'Doesn't he always?' Janus said, thinking back on the time when he had met the Prince's companion in the other time stream.
The two older ones shook their heads.
'Hasn't said a word aloud,' the Pawn said, glancing at the older one.
'Took him five years to open his mouth, figures he'll be the same by you,' the one with more experience acknowledged to the one who wore the same clothes.
He glared towards Janus with the shadow of a tired smirk.
'But knowing you, things can't be the same.'
'Wait a second…' the wizard grinned, looking intently at the hole.
With a forceful hissing Molor shot up from the prison, using all his strength to bring his long, heavy body upwards and on to safe ground.
Even the Prince's eyes widened slightly, but for a completely different reason than Frog and Lai's.
Eyes glowing red as blood took in the entire room as the gigantic, slithering form settled on the floor. The mystic illumination glistened over the pearl scales, creating sparkling stars on the snake's body.
He was pure white.