"Keep alert, we never know when we might run into trouble".
Linten continued on into the dark forest, the rest of his mercenaries bringing up the rear. It seemed odd for some of the greatest mercenaries in all of Ivalice to be marching in the woods late at night.
Linten was wondering what exactly they were dealing with on this strange mission. He and his men had been briefed by the rich nobles of the nearby town that many people who left town after dark had never been seen again, and not even a trace of their bodies could be found. According to Eurich, the head noble of the village, he had already hired knights with high reputations to see to the problem. None had returned, and Eurich decided to hire the best of the best to stop whatever it was that was killing the citizens. Linten had been a knight for over twenty years and it was little doubt that he had the skill that could match that of nearly any elite knight of Ivalice. His five companions were nearly equally matched to their leader, and the six of them together made up a very powerful fighting force indeed.
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They continued to walk in near silence, only the howl of the wind and some cries of cuars could be heard in the night. Linten noticed the brightness of the stars, which almost appeared as if they were beckoning them forward into the darkness. "What are we dealing with Linten? These woods contain nothing I know of capable of strength of defeating parties of warriors." The question had been raised by the group summoner, Ori.
Linten had been pondering the question himself. "I can't say for sure. It is either a strong and smart monster, or a group of bandits planning to get a ransom for captured nobles."
Juris, the group's archer, held up his hand in a signal for the group to stop. "I see some rustling up ahead. Its too far to make out very clearly, but I think its at least human size."
"Whatever it is, I doubt its friendly. Lets play it safe and take no chances."
Juris pulled out an arrow from his quiver. Whatever the thing was, it had come out from its hiding place and was out in the open now, although it was still too far away to make out more then its size. Juris took the opportunity to fire a magical arrow with perfect aim at the creature.
Evidently, the creature had seen the arrow flying towards it and conjured up a protective aura. The arrow bounced harmlessly off the protect spell, crashing into the ground and caused a fiery explosion upon impact with the forest floor.
Linten cursed. It was a human after all, and if there was one around, there had to be others nearby. These were most likely highly experienced bandits if the spell caster could so easily deflect a lightning arrow. "We need to take him out before he warns the others!"
Juris readied another arrow, this time preparing to fire an ultimus arrow, while Ori started to conjure up a spell. However, before either could begin their attacks, a bright light lit up above both of them. "GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
Juris and Ori did not need to hear the call from Linten to know they had seconds of their lives left. Juris realized he was dead, having no chance to dodge a holy spell no matter how fast he moved, and hoped his companions would revive him quickly, impressed at the skill of this strange fighter. Ori tried to save himself by changing his summon, beginning to summon Carbunkle instead (the ability to switch summons in mid- cast was something very few summoners could manage) yet it was still too late.
The bright light over Juris's head soon turned into a huge burst of energy, killing the highly experienced archer instantly, while the same thing happened a second later to Ori, who died before Carbunkle could reflect the holy spell.
Linten was somewhat frightened that two of his companions had been killed so quickly, but knew better then to panic. This was certainly not an ordinary foe, and from facing hundreds of battles Linten knew being calm in battle was the best way to stay alive. "Ryo, revive them quickly! Huno and Nyoken, lets go!"
Linten began to charge at the dark figure who was still impossible to identify in the dark night. Huno and Nyoken slightly behind him, they're weapons drawn. Linten had his Aegis shield in front of him, ready to try to block any magic the foe (who seemed to be a very strong priest) used on him.
Sure enough, he felt the air around him begin to heat up and pulled out his shield while jumping as far as he could to the right. The flare spell left a huge gaping hole where Linten had been less then a second ago, and he quickly realized even an Aegis shield, famous for blocking magic attacks, would have not saved his life from the flare.
During the casting of flare, Huno had leaped into the air, now close enough to be able to hit the strange wizard who had to be a calculator with his sharp lance. After jumping high into the air (but not too high should he risk hitting the tall trees), Huno could finally make out the man, and without hesitating flew down towards him, lance prepared to kill the man before he even noticed where the lancer had vanished to while he was casting magic.
Against almost any opponent, the attack would have worked, especially since it was preformed at twice the speed a normal lancer moved, but the strange man was ready for it. Right before Huno landed a killing blow with the lance, the man, with inhuman speed, reached under a cloak darker then the night itself and pulled out a large sword. Hugo saw the blade at the last second and tried to dodge, but the man had already planted to blade right through his crystal armor and into his right lung. Huno was at a true state of shock, he felt himself unable to take in any oxygen and took a look into the face of the man who killed him. The horrible eyes were the last thing he ever saw.
Linten and Nyoken could not match the speed of a lancers jump while they were foot, and stood helpless as Huno landed right where their foe predicted. Linten was horrified at the brutal death of his close friend. Would there be time for Ryo to revive him before it was no longer possible? Linten refused to consider that his old friend might die and pushed the thoughts aside, focusing his eyes on this very strange man.
The man (or at least he appeared to be a man) was quite tall, wearing the same attire a wizard normally wore. However, instead of the normal blue wizard cloak and a green outfit (and yellow pointed hat), his entire outfit and wizard hat, which managed to hide the mans face, was a very dark black, covered with what looked like shining red stars. It looked almost like the man was the sky night itself. He could have nearly blended in perfectly if the red stars were instead white. The appearance of the man caused Linten to shudder. There was something very sinister about this wizard...
Linten needed to buy time for Ryo to heal the others before he charged into combat blindly, so he asked the wizard a question, shield still ready in case this brutal man refused to answer him and took the chance to attack. "Who are you, and how is it that you have both calculator skills and skill with a sword?"
The wizard starred at him, his dark yellow eyes the only part of his face that could be seen. He replied in a voice that sent chills down Lintens spine "who I am is not of any importance to you, for you will soon be sent to hell and tormented by demons. You will be suffering too much to even remember our encounter, so please forgive me for not answering your questions."
Linten was horrified once more, but he was not about to show fear to this wizard. He had to buy more time for Ryo, all of their lives depended on it...
"I think you underestimate us a great deal. I happen to be one of the greatest of the Nanten knights."
The wizard continued to glare at him with his dark yellow eyes. "Is that so? It was my understanding that the Nanten knights are no more. One of the men I killed ten days ago revealed that bit of information. Was he mistaken?"
"No, his claim was accurate. The Nanteen knights were broken up after Delita took the throne. With a new plan of peace, Delita saw no more need for us or the Hokuten, so both were disbanded."
The wizard continued to look at Linten curiously. "I can tell by your face that you are an honest man. How odd that you have become nothing more then a common mercenary."
"On the contrary, working as a mercenary allows me and the others to fight to help others! We fight for money only to make a living, and charge no more then we need to keep alive. Of course, I doubt one of your kind could understand what helping others is."
The wizard continued his deep stare. Linten silently prayed that Ryo would be there soon. What was taking him so long? He could see that Nyoken, still to his right at the point where he could see him without breaking eye contact with the wizard, appeared to be wondering the same thing.
"I see I have found one of the worlds few remaining men of honor, how quaint. What makes your story even more amusing is that you are telling no lies. Do you realize where your virtues and notions of justice have gotten you? They've brought you and your friends into the pits of hell itself, and it will not be long now until you are suffering beyond anything you would have believed possible. That, my foolish knight, is where your virtues have gotten you. By the way, your friends are nearly past the point of death where they can be saved. Did you ever think to turn around?"
Linten was filled with fury at this horrible thing before him (he doubted it was human), yet did as he had been suggested. A few feet behind him was Ryo, somehow being held in midair by a spell, but was without a doubt dead.
Nyoken had also seen the sight, and screamed in anger. He charged at the monster that could not possibly be human, and Linten followed as well, fueled by sorrow and hatred.
Showing incredible speed once more, the wizard teleported away less then a second before he was beheaded by Nyokens samurai sword and appeared behind Linten. Linten ducked and tried to kick the wizard before he could cast a spell, but the wizard was much too fast. A spell hit Linten, and before he knew it he was unable to move or even feel his body anymore. He stood in mute horror at his hands which were stone gray, realizing he had been petrified.
Nyoken charged at the wizard once more, hoping the wizard would expect a blind charge of fury and not be ready for a true attack. When he neared his foe, he quickly stopped his charge, jumped into the air, and screamed out into the night, "Flame-eating sword, swipe away the evils! Cirijiraden!"
The draw out spell hit the wizard, but appeared to have no affect. Nyoken stammered in horror, praying this was all just a horrible dream.
"Not a bad use of the skill, you almost surprised me. Next time you may want to concentrate on power rather then speed though, you wasted most of the energy trying to speed the attack up. Now then, allow me to show you magic with speed and power combined."
Nyoken was splashed with a dark green form, and at first felt no pain. Then it began, a horrible pain ran through his entire body. He screamed in agony and fell to the floor, trying to get back up but unable to do so.
"Poison used at its best can prove as deadly as nearly any spell, and certainly the most painful. Would you not agree, knight?"
The wizard was looking at the petrified form of Linten, knowing full well the man could see and hear the sight taking place before him. Linten could do nothing as Nyoken was screaming in pain. Soon the brave Nyoken could stand it no longer. He would not give this bastard the pleasure.. With the last ounce of strength he had, Nyoken plunged his samurai sword into his heart. The pain had finally stopped...
Linten tried to scream in anger, tried to break out of his prison, tried to save his dead friends before they were gone forever, but he could do nothing at all. The wizard walked over to him and patted his frozen shoulder. Linten put every bit of his concentration into breaking the spell and putting his sword through the creatures black heart.
"Well knight, as interesting as our skirmish was, I have to say that I have grown tired of dealing with your kind. Tell me, have the Zodiac Braves arrived yet?"
The wizard stared into Lintens frozen eyes. "Interesting. You have no idea do you? I can't risk making my presence known should the Zodiac Demons still live. If you wish to defeat me and revenge your comrades, you will find out if the Zodiac Braves have arisen yet, and if so, find out who they are. Once you have found them, tell them to come to this forest if they value the lives of the innocents, for I will continue to kill until the Zodiac Braves come here to contact me. Your petrified state will wear off as soon as your companions are no longer capable of surviving even with the aid of a phoenix down. If you wish to restore their honor and get revenge for their murders, you will do as I say. Farewell, young knight."
And with that, the dark wizard vanished into thin air, leaving not trace of leftover energy which normally occurs from a teleport.

Authors Note-

Greetings to all who came across this story. Originally I had planned on making this story two chapters or so, but after plotting the ideas and starting to write it I figure that I may end up making it longer. I suppose it all depends on where things go. Any comments would also be appreciated and I'll be sure to reply to any of them.

There are two things I should mention about the story that takes a different turn then the game did at its normal ending point. I decided on two changes that I think fit the game a bit better then what occurred while playing it. The first change is that during the battle at the thieves hideout, Ramza and Delita end up sticking up for Miluda DURING the fight instead of after. Am I the only one who found it odd that Delita made the comment "Ramza, I do not think she is our enemy" yet the two continue to fight her anyway without any further comments? It seemed that it was the perfect point to reason with Miluda, and for some reason the game felt it important to kill her off. I believe that if Ramza and Delita explained themselves and Miluda saw how little they truly knew about the side they were fighting for, she would have offered to join them if they decided to stop aiding the Hokuten (which they would have agreed to upon hearing about Dycedargs plans). From there, Weigraf ends up joining as well, seeing Ramza as a strong ally in the fight against injustice, especially since they both wish to uphold justice and equal treatment. It turns out to be Gafgarion, who after being mortally wounded, steals the holy stone from Ramza and becomes Velius (rather then Weigraf).

The other change is that Zalbag does not perish from Adramelk. I think it made more sense that Ramza (who had no idea Dycedarg had killed Balbanes) would have become enraged and have charged at Adramelk before the beast could steal the soul of Zalbag. Both of the changes are ones I made because I thought they fit the game much better and made more logical sense. Just my opinion of course, and hopefully nobody will strongly disagree.