by She-Ronin
Interlude One: Past
Kashua Glacier, One Year After the Destruction of Neet
The endless stretch of gleaming ice was beautiful, in its cold, harsh way. It might even have been a sight worth seeing if he weren't going to die out here. Possibly die.
Massive arms shook violently in frustration as he adjusted the frigid, heavy weight of his weapon over his shoulder. How could he be so stupid?
How could he be so… stupid?
The slippery ground in front of him exploded in a glittering mass of ice shards as the Devil God swung his axe down in a fit of fury and self-disgust. The unrestrained blow left a gaping fissure in the otherwise unmarred surface of the icy 'road', and he glared at it, a snarl twisting his broad features.
He. Was. Not. Going. To. Die. Out. Here-and he was going to find what he was searching for. Even if it killed--
"Stupid!" he raged at himself, "you're the brother of the hero of the Gigantos and you get lost-"
Of all the ends Kongol could have pictured for himself-they all happened on the battlefield, of course-he had never entertained the possibility that he might freeze.
It was said that the greatest of Giganto warriors, the true Hero, had once fought against a powerful spellcaster who had hidden himself away in his Tower. The Hero had emerged from the battle victorious, and the Tower had fallen from the skies to crash here in this place.
The Humans knew this frozen landscape as the Kashua Glacier, but his people had called it by the more complicated name of 'Faien Sevya mon Naijaskare'; 'the Land Freed of the Shadow of Darkness'. To the Gigantos this was a holy place, and he'd felt compelled to pay a visit to it while Doel was 'visiting' his cousin in Deningrad.
This hadn't been the first time Kongol and Emperor Doel had quarreled, in their own, odd way. Nor would it be the first time the warrior had stormed off in silent frustration.
The Human King had wanted him to stay in the city until his failing negotiations with the fragile Queen Theresa were 'completed,' but the Giganto had vehemently refused. From there, the conversation had degenerated into a one-sided shouting match about 'obedience to one's king, a warrior's honor', so on and so forth.
What Doel seemed to have forgotten was that Kongol wasn't one of his Human warriors. He wasn't bound by the same laws the Human Knights were, and he'd seen what passed for 'honor' amongst their race. No, not even the anger of his dear friend would prevent him from visiting this sacred land-he had to see the Sky Tower for himself now that he was the last.
That had been that. He'd stormed from Deningrad, hauling his trusty axe with him.
Unfortunately, purpose didn't necessarily equal knowledge. Other than the occasional snowfall, the two-day journey to Kashua Glacier had been easy enough. Thick forests and white-dusted landscapes had slowly transformed into bare, slippery ground. Then there had been nothing but the pale-bright glacier and the knowledge that part of the Past was here.
What he hadn't realized was that Kashua Glacier was a veritable labyrinth of twists and turns. Within an hour, he could no longer tell one slippery pathway from the next; by the time he'd admitted to himself just how lost he was, it had been too late to backtrack. He didn't know where to go to backtrack.
Releasing a tense, shaky breath, Kongol flipped the heavy battleaxe over, swinging it upwards to rest it against one shoulder. Adjusting it so that it rested in a more comfortable position, he cautiously raised one foot and stepped over the crack he'd made.
Onward.
Was the path forward the way back towards Deningrad, or was the road behind him the-
All he could do was walk onward. Anything was better than twiddling his thumbs and doing nothing, after all. He didn't delude himself into thinking Doel had sent a search party after him. He'd just have to get himself out of this one.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
He just had to… think about how to find his way to the Sky Tower, and then he'd worry about getting back to Deningrad.
Minutes stretched by in a hazy of slick cold pathways and cloudy gray skies. He walked until even his legs began to tire. Kongol knew it was likely he was walking in circles, but even with that realization burning in the back of his mind, he couldn't bring himself to give up his search. There was too little left of the Gigantos, and the passing of years had dimmed the memories of childhood, so that the last legacy of his people was slipping through his fingers like grains of sand. Even if it did mean death in the end-and it wouldn't-he had to see the Sky Tower and remember.
An irritating cramp had begun to wick its way down his calf, and he paused, hissing, to rub at one leg. "Hmph."
Kongol leaned gingerly against one of the glacier walls as the wave of pain increased. The cold bit through his thick, fur-lined coat as he continued to rest his weight against it, massaging his aching leg. It didn't really seem right for a Giganto warrior to suffer from leg cramps, any more than it did for one to find himself hopelessly lost in the pursuit of history.
The pain thankfully ebbed away, and as he lowered his foot back to the ground, a resounding 'chink!' met his ears. Looking down to see what it was his heel had bumped up against, Kongol half expected to see a random hunk of ice sticking up from the ground. What he found was a small, rectangular rock, sanded down so that the surface was smooth. A thick layer of ice completely covered the gravestone, indicating that the spot where he was standing had been someone's resting place for quite some time. Now that he looked more closely, the ground where he was standing wasn't solid ice like most of the glacier. It was frozen soil. Some Human must have had very idiotic kin. They would have to be out of their minds to dig a grave in such hard earth…
A single, soft footstep sounded from behind him, followed by a single, barely audible growl. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he tensed, reaching up with his free hand to grasp the heft of the axe tightly.
Human, he thought. It was out of warning that Kongol lashed out with his weapon, the scythe-like blade slicing audibly through the air.
"Shit!"
Though he was several feet away from the girl, she stumbled backwards on the ice, a flicker of fear passing across her thin, cold-reddened face. Her look of terror quickly faded into one of outrage as she windmilled about in a futile attempt to remain standing. Unfortunately, her flimsy boots didn't have the needed traction and, with yet another foul curse, the newcomer fell flat on her back. The loose hood of her jacket fell back to expose crudely shorn blonde hair.
This was his possible 'attacker'? She looked too small to do much damage to anything! Kongol gave an impolite snort and automatically relaxed his battle stance.
She sat up with a snarl-gray-blue eyes flashing as her fists began to shake. "You could have killed me!"
Now it was his turn to take a step back.
Well, appearances could be deceiving...
He wondered if his axe would be enough to fend off her attack.
____
Look! I'm here! I'm alive!
Anyway, this isn't really an update persay... part two of Echo is still in the works, and this was originally part of it. The problem is juggling a lot of sizeable flashbacks, some dream sequences, and then the main storyline. People would get real confused, real quick, so I'm going to try putting the flashbacks in as story interludes/side story thingies.
Yes, I took serious liberty with the story of Faust and the Tower of Flanvel, lol. History gets warped fairly easily over such a long stretch of time, so as far as Kongol knows, Belzac did fly in like an action hero and handed Faust's ass to him. Mmm... Belzac.
Going with the theory that the Dragoons find each other, I wouldn't be all that surprised if our Main Characters in game had met one another even before the game began. We know Dart and Haschel did. It also stands to reason that as a Sacred Sister, Miranda might have met Albert, and quite possibly Kongol, as he served Doel. Royalty interactions and all that.
Gee, I wonder who the blonde girl could be. -_- *COUGH* Going with the official game data, Kongol would be twenty years-old and Miranda thirteen.
blah blah denotes Kongol speaking in the Giganto tongue.