(Author's note: I take long enough, guys? Sorry about this, this chapter was just really difficult to write for some reason. I suppose since a large part of it takes place entirely within a cathedral.)
CHAPTER 3
THE QUEEN IS GONE
Crono and Lucca looked back up at the castle they had just escaped from, hoping they wouldn't see any soldiers coming after them. Luckily, they didn't. Apparently they had slipped out of the castle unnoticed, so they had plenty of time to get away from it. As they walked back down the slope towards Guardia Forest, they talked about what to do.
"Where could the queen be?" Lucca asked. "Did you hear anything in town, Crono?"
"Yeah," Crono said. "I was talking to Marle about it before she disappeared. When I was staying at Truce Inn, I heard the barkeep and a guy named Toma talk about a cathedral. Toma said it was really strange there, plus on my way to the queen's room to talk with Marle, the chancellor was acting really strange, like he almost couldn't believe the queen was back. He also said he was going to the cathedral."
"Yeah, I saw the chancellor on my way into the castle," Lucca said. "That guy's definitely shifty. So where is this cathedral?"
"I'm...not exactly sure," Crono said. "I think if we walk to the west along the southern rim of Guardia Forest, we should come to it."
"Right then," Lucca said. "Let's do it."
They traveled down the slope and back into Guardia Forest, staying on guard due to Crono's experience in the forest before. On their way through the forest they could hear hints of imp activity. They were obviously lurking in the forest to spy on any Guardian soldier or official travelling through it. The Guardian military probably hadn't cleaned it out yet because they had been so consumed in the search for Queen Leene.
In fact, it was a wonder that the front line hadn't come closer to the castle and the village. The entire castle had seemed so preoccupied with the queen. Apparently even the knight captain had taken part in the search for her. Crono wondered exactly how many troops the Guardian military consisted of at this time period. It had to be a lot, to be able to split their efforts so successfully. In 1000 AD, the military was much smaller. Despite the looming threat of another war between humans and mystics, people were convinced that times were peaceful, so not many were joining the military.
The forest grew dimmer as the long day came to a close, and the sun set. The patches of light in the forest grew fainter and fainter until the patches were no more and the ground of the forest was nothing but shadow. Crono shivered as the sun rested for the day, taking warmth away from the world for the night.
"Hey," he said to Lucca. "Did you happen to bring anything to start a fire?"
"Of course," Lucca said, digging into her pouch. "This is me we're talking about after all."
She brought out a lighter, and some papers. Crono gathered together some wood after they had picked out a clearing. They were actually near the southern entrance of the forest, but it was so dark that they had just decided to stop for the night. They started a fire, and comforted themselves with its warmth and light.
"So how did you follow us?" Crono asked Lucca.
"Oh, right," Lucca said. "I was meaning to explain that. Here, let me get it out..."
She rummaged through her pouch some more and brought out a strange looking object. It was a rod, on the end of which was a round green stone, and branching off from it on all sides were five more, smaller green stones.
"I call this the Gate Key," Lucca said, always glad to have a chance to admire her handiwork. "This stone is similar in composition to the mysterious jewel of Marle's pendant. However, it's not as powerful so requires more than one to work properly with the rest of the key. Inside the gate key are the principal components of my telepod device, mainly the ones that reacted to the pendant and deal with the warp field. Of course, it doesn't work everywhere. It's not nearly powerful enough for that. For whatever reason, there are certain points where the fabric of space-time is less stable than in the rest of the world. The area I put my telepod device was one of them, apparently."
"So, is there any way to know where a gate will send you?" Crono asked.
"Well, no," Lucca said. "It's really a leap of faith. Gates do seem to be consistent though, if the gate we used is a typical one. They'll always send you to the same time period, though apparently not always at the same exact moment. Gates apparently age along with the era they're in, otherwise Princess Nadia, you, and I would have arrived in this era at the exact same moment, along with any other person or thing that would ever or has ever traveled through that gate."
"Wow, you've already figured out a lot about these gates," Crono said in an admiring tone.
"Heh, yeah," Lucca said, smiling. "Of course there's still a lot more to find out about them. Like what exactly causes them, what elements the space inside them is made of, among many other things. I haven't gotten a chance yet, but once this is all over I'll definitely conduct more studies and experiments on the gates."
The rest of the night was spent quietly, both of them thinking their own individual thoughts. But all the thoughts centered on what had happened the past few days. Of course, those who had witnessed what had happened likely thought it was just part of the show. And neither Crono nor Lucca intended to tell them otherwise when they got back.
The next day, Crono and Lucca emerged from Guardia Forest, though they didn't stray too far from its borders. They needed to follow it as it stretched westwards, so that they could find the cathedral where they suspected Queen Leene was being held. They walked quickly, not wanting to have to rest another night before finding the queen. For all they knew, she could already be dead.
They began to get worried as the day wore on and they still saw no sign of the cathedral. It was past noon now, and the sun traveled onwards through the sky. Lucca began to get worried, so Crono climbed a nearby tree to see if he could spot any sign of the cathedral. He put his hand to his forehead, shielding his eyes from the sun. He peered around, and luckily managed to catch a glimpse of what seemed to be the very top of a tall roof to the west, surrounded by some forest. He was lucky to see it, as most of that area was covered by mist.
He climbed down the tree and told Lucca of his discovery. Spirits lifted, they traveled quicker than before. Unfortunately, the cathedral turned out to be farther away than Crono had guessed. He had failed to spot a downward slope, and the lowlands went on for a bit before sloping back upwards again. With all the trees obscuring the true level of the ground, this gap hadn't been very apparent from Crono's treetop view.
The sun had set when finally they came to a gateway that opened to lead further into the forest. This branch of the forest had more gnarled looking trees, and they were packed closer together, making it darker inside the forest. This had to be Yakra's Forest, the home of the cathedral.
Crono and Lucca stepped through the gateway, decorated with innocent looking cherub statues on either side. They looked out of place in a forest like this, and Crono dwelt on that as they walked a cobblestone path through the forest, which they guessed led to the cathedral. It had to, there had been no other sign of civilization on the way there.
Eventually the forest gave way to a clearing, where another wall surrounded the cathedral itself. The gates were currently open, and the moon could be seen in the sky above, unobstructed by trees. Whereas two cute cherubs had guarded the entrance to the forest path, two large archangel statues, holding spears outwards towards the path, guarded the walled entrance that surrounded the cathedral. There was something in their stance and faces however, that to Crono didn't seem to indicate something of a holy nature.
Crono and Lucca walked up to the large doors of the cathedral, looking at each other to make sure that they wanted to enter this place. With a sigh, Crono pushed the doors open and they stepped in, Lucca's hand hovering over her still holstered gun. They looked around cautiously as they walked through the lighted cathedral. Everything was quiet inside, and no one was in the pews. It seemed to be a completely normal cathedral. At the front was an altar, moonlight from outside shining onto it. A piano was situated near it.
"Oh!" Came a sudden voice. "Who are you?"
Crono and Lucca turned, startled, to see some nuns entering from outside. Lucca relaxed, taking her hand from her gun, and she looked sidelong at Crono. The nuns stood there, waiting for an answer.
"Oh we're just...travelers from Porre," Crono said. "We just wanted to take some shelter here for the night."
The nuns looked questioningly at him, clearly surprised.
"How did you get here from Porre?" One asked. "Zenan bridge was destroyed by Magus's troops."
Crono winced. He wasn't quite sure how to answer that.
"We came by boat," Lucca said quickly. "We were desperate to get across to Guardia, we both have family who live here."
The nuns looked at them, considering their answers carefully. They whispered amongst each other for a bit, then turned back to them.
"Well, the cathedral is of course open to anyone," one said. "Please, wait out here while we prepare a room for you."
"Thank you," Lucca said.
As the nuns left the front room, Crono and Lucca sat down on one of the nearby pews. Crono breathed a sigh of relief, and looked at Lucca.
"That was close," he said.
"Hey, you can always depend on Lucca the Great," Lucca said, smiling.
"So what do you think?" Crono asked her. "Is Queen Leene here?
"Well it's sort of strange how they all just appeared like that," Lucca said. "I didn't see any sign of them outside, though I guess it's possible we could've missed them."
"I'll try to find something out by talking to them," Crono said. "You should snoop around, try to find anything suspicious."
"When?" Lucca asked. "They'll probably be watching us closely if this really is the place."
"The middle of the night," Crono said. "They have to sleep too."
As the nuns re-emerged from the side hallway, Crono cursed himself for not keeping track of how many there had been before. Now he had no way to know if some were lurking elsewhere, watching them from some covert location. The nuns dispersed throughout the main room of the cathedral, one walking up to Crono and Lucca, smiling warmly at them. One thing that caught Crono's eye was how smoothly she moved. It didn't seem human.
"Please, follow me," she said, in a very friendly tone.
"Too friendly," Crono whispered to Lucca as they followed the nun.
"Crono..." Lucca whispered back. "She's a nun."
Crono gave Lucca a dismissive look, making Lucca smile despite the danger they might currently be in.
The hallway of the cathedral was beautifully decorated. If not for the strange nuns, this really would be a legitimate cathedral. At least, from what they had seen so far. If this cathedral was as old as it seemed, there were bound to be secrets. Most old churches and castles have them. Eventually they arrived at a door, and the nun opened it with a key, the click sounding loudly in the empty halls. That gave Lucca pause for thought. Were the nuns they had seen the only ones here? Who were all these rooms for? It couldn't be just for guests, the cathedral was too far out of the way to get them frequently enough to warrant so many rooms.
The door creaked as the nun pushed it gently open, and she invited Crono and Lucca into their room. It was a bit small, but had all they needed for a night's stay. Crono looked around the room, then turned to the nun who was still watching them.
"Thank you," he said. "I think that's all we'll need for now."
The nun nodded, and silently backed out of the room, her eyes on them until the door closed gently. Crono noticed the door stayed open a crack for a few seconds, and could've sworn that he saw a glint of an eye peering through it. He shivered as it closed.
"Wow," Lucca said. "That was definitely on the creepy side."
"I'm pretty convinced this is the place myself," Crono said. "But we should still check around."
"Right," Lucca said.
And with little else to say, they both climbed into their beds and started their very short sleep. And whether they wanted it to be short or not, they would find they had little choice in the matter.
Crono woke up, not quite sure what had disturbed his sleep. He was turned in bed, facing the wooden wall. He wasn't quite sure at first what he was looking at, still being a bit groggy. As his head cleared, however, he slowly came to the realization. There was an eye looking at him from a hole in the wall.
Startled, he leaped out of bed. The eye moved away from the hole, disappearing. He heard a strange grunt from the hole in the wall, and the sound of something heavy moving behind the wall became apparent as the floorboards creaked. Whatever it was, it was moving out of the room next to them and to the hallway. Was it coming for them?
Crono rushed over to Lucca's bed and gently shook her, waking her up. She turned over in bed and peered up at him, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. She sat up, her violet hair in slight disarray.
"What is it, Crono?" She asked him.
"Something was looking at me from behind the wall," Crono said, putting his gi on over his other clothes. He snatched up his pouch and sword sheath as well. "It's moving now. Hear it?"
Lucca paused, as she suddenly heard the floorboards creaking as if something heavy was moving on them. She became wide-awake when they both heard the door in the next room open and slam. Then there was silence. Lucca forced a smile, clearly scared.
"This is one of those times..." she said. "When I think we've gotten way in over our heads."
Crono grasped the hilt of his wooden sword as he faced the door. He wished he had something better than a wooden sword. Perhaps it would've been better if they had waited until his knighting to look for Leene.
They both waited for several minutes, expecting whatever it was to burst through the door, shattering it into pieces. Lucca was tapping her gun nervously, as a bead of sweat ran down the side of her head. She had checked to make sure she had ammo in it four times in the last few minutes.
Time passed on, and eventually they both relaxed. It was a bit embarrassing for them both. They had both fought monsters in their lifetime, Guardia Forest was still full of them in 1000 AD. And here something that might be nothing more than an innocent nun with nothing more than a paranoia problem was scaring them.
"We better start looking," Crono said.
Lucca nodded slowly, and holstered her gun. She walked over to the door and turned the knob, then waited a few seconds before opening it. She stepped out into the hall and looked to the left, and a short scream escaped her lips. Crono rushed out to her side to see what had startled her, and he almost yelled in surprise himself.
At the far end of the hallway, almost completely shrouded in darkness, a nun was standing making no sound at all, just staring at them. The look on her face was expressionless, and the three stood there staring at each other for a few minutes, Lucca still breathing hard. Slowly, the nun backed away just as she had done before when she exited the room, disappearing into the darkness.
"They're definitely not doing a good job with appearing normal," Lucca said.
"That's because they don't intend to let us go," Crono said, glaring into the darkness. His wooden sword was out and his hands gripped it tightly. Lucca smiled, filled with new confidence. Crono was ready to fight.
They stalked through the halls of the cathedral, keeping a close lookout for anything strange. They hadn't seen any more sign of whatever it was that Crono had seen looking at him through the wall. Both of them hoped they never would.
It was really hard to see right now. All the candles that lit the hall earlier were out, and there were no windows in the hall to let in what light there was from outside. And that wouldn't be a lot, considering they were in the middle of a forest. In fact, neither of them could figure out how they had any light at all right now. Regardless, they went on.
They finally arrived at the doorway that led into the side hall from the main room of the cathedral. Crono turned the knob, and they entered the well-lit room. They looked around, hoping to find some other door that could lead to where the queen was. However, they didn't find a thing. Queen Leene appeared to be absolutely nowhere in this creepy cathedral.
"Great," Crono said, sinking down into a pew. "Of all the wrong places we could've searched, we picked the creepy and suspicious one. If we had picked any other, we wouldn't have wasted so much time. I sure hope the queen is ok, wherever she is..."
"This can't be," Lucca said. "This has to be the place. You said the chancellor was here, right? But where is he? We haven't seen a single sign of him. There has got to be something we're missing here."
"Maybe he left before we came," Crono suggested.
"No, couldn't be," Lucca replied, looking around the room. "He would've had to pass us, we didn't leave that long after him."
Crono shrugged. "We could go back to that creepy hallway, I guess. We might've missed something there."
"Hold on..." Lucca said, walking over to one of the cathedral walls.
She placed her ear to it and began knocking on it. She moved around the perimeter of the room, knocking on the wall as she went. She eventually arrived at the northern wall, and worked her way over to the northeastern section where she had begun. She sighed, and folded her arms, looking down.
"Still nothing," she said, spirits low.
Just then she gasped, and narrowed her eyes as she looked to the floor. Was that a...? She kneeled to the floor, and got a closer look. It was! Sticking out from beneath the wall was a hairpin. This had to be where the secret room was, there was no other explanation for the hairpin sticking out from BENEATH the wall.
"Crono!" She said, calling him over. "I found something!"
Crono came over to Lucca. "What is it?" He asked her, looking at the hairpin in her hands.
"A hairpin," she said, turning it around in her hand. "And look!" She pointed to an insignia on the hairpin. "That's Guardia's royal crest! It was beneath this wall, so that means the wall isn't attached to the ground. It probably lifts!"
Just then they noticed a breeze in the room. They looked over to see the entrance to the cathedral was open slightly, letting in the cool night air of the forest.
"Was that open before?" Crono asked.
Lucca shook her head, taking out her gun again.
"Very good," said a hostile, venomous voice from behind the door. "You're very clever to find our secret."
One by one the nuns entered, a dark look on all their faces. They moved smoothly towards Crono and Lucca, who had their weapons ready. Once more Crono noticed how they seemed to simply glide across the ground as they moved, not moving their legs at all. All six nuns lined up beside each other, with Crono and Lucca backed up against the wall. Lucca pointed her gun at one of them.
"Stay back," Lucca said. "I don't want to shoot you."
The nuns laughed horrible monstrous laughs. They edged closer, and Lucca began to sweat as her finger hovered over the trigger. Crono wished now more than ever that he had more than a wooden sword, but it would have to do if the nuns attacked. The nuns moved closer and closer. Suddenly there was a bang, and one of the nuns stumbled back a few feet, the other nuns shrieking. The nun fell to the ground dead, and the other nuns looked at Lucca, who was shaking, her gun smoking.
"I...just killed a nun," Lucca said, eyes wide.
The remaining nuns gathered around the fallen nun, looking down darkly at her. They lifted their heads after a few moments of silence to look once again at Crono and Lucca. Crono and Lucca both backed up then, seeing something wholly disturbing. The nuns' faces were contorting, the mouths widening to an extent unreachable by normal human mouths. They widened and twisted upward in cruel, demonic smiles. Long, curved fangs were now visible inside the mouths of the nuns. Their eyes grew bigger, and almond shaped. Their pupils turned to reptilian slits.
Suddenly they all burst into blue flame, howling and yelling horribly. Lucca covered her ears, trying to drown out the monstrous noise. At first they seemed to be in pain, but soon the two of them realized the howls and yells had more of a pleasurable tone to them, as if they enjoyed what was currently happening to them. Their clothes and skin burned off of them, turning out to be nothing more than disguises. Their true forms became more and more clear now as the human flesh burned and dissolved into nothing.
The five nuns were now clearly mystics. They were naga-ettes, creatures with the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a snake. Their skin was green and their hair bright pink. They licked their lips with their long tongues as they viewed Crono and Lucca, who they now obviously intended to have as their meal.
One of them coiled back and then quickly sprung forward at Lucca. Lucca shot at the naga-ette, and hit her shoulder causing her to shriek and halt her charge. At this, the other four charged, hoping to overwhelm the armed teenagers. Crono charged in turn, grabbing hold of one by her shoulders and tackling her to the ground. She screeched and swiped at him, scratching his cheek with her claws. He punched her in the face a few times, then grabbed her arm as she swung it again.
Meanwhile, Lucca was dealing with three other naga-ettes. One charged, swinging at Lucca with her clawed hand, and Lucca quickly dodged to the side and hit the monster on the back of the head with the butt of her gun. But she was then tackled from behind by another naga-ette, and screamed as they both fell to the ground, the creature on top of her back.
Crono and the naga-ette he was fighting had gotten off the ground and were now facing each other.
"These things are tough," Crono thought. "I'll only be able to do so much damage with this wooden sword...unless I...ah, that's it. I'll try that."
Crono grinned at the naga-ette, and gestured for her to come at him. She screamed and charged, reaching both claws out at him, obviously going for his neck. Crono quickly dodged to the side of her, unsheathed his sword, and bashed her on the back of the head with it's hilt, causing her to fall to the ground. Crono then leaped into the air with his sword pointing downward towards her back, and as he approached the ground he added more force to the sword by shoving it downward. As he landed, the wooden sword was driven right into the naga-ette's back, and she screamed and writhed on the ground, trying to grasp the sword in her back.
Lucca elbowed the naga-ette she was wrestling with in the face, and rolled away from it when it let go of her. She got to her feet and shot another naga-ette that was coming at her. With two naga-ettes left, Crono and Lucca joined together again, each facing a naga-ette. They were at a standoff. Crono was holding his sword, ready to strike as soon as the naga-ette charged. Lucca was doing the same with her gun, aiming it right at the other naga-ette's head.
Quick as lightning, however, the naga-ettes grabbed each other's arms and swung each other to the side, landed on the wall, then sprung away from it for Crono and Lucca. They both leaped out of the way and onto the ground, and the naga-ettes slammed into each other and fell in a heap. Lucca pulled out her small flame-thrower and shot a jet of flame at the entangled naga-ettes. They got up, screaming as they burned, and Lucca took aim with her gun and shot both of them dead.
Lucca sighed, wiping sweat off her brow. "We did it," she said, smiling.
Crono sheathed his sword. "It's not over yet," he said. "We still have to find Leene."
Lucca let loose a heavier sigh and hunched over, feeling tired at the thought of more fighting. Her eyes surveyed the floor of the cathedral, now littered with the bodies of the five slain naga-ettes. She narrowed her eyes.
"Weren't there six?" She asked Crono.
Suddenly there was a horrible shriek, and green arms wrapped tightly around Lucca from behind, pulling her back to the ground. Crono rushed to help her, but the naga-ette's snake-half whipped out and tripped him. Lucca shivered as the naga-ette's tongue licked the back of her neck, tasting her flesh.
"Killed my sisters, eh?" The naga-ette said in Lucca's ear. "Shot me in the shoulder. But I got you in the end, yesss."
Lucca closed her eyes as she felt the hot breath of the monster on the back of her neck as the naga-ette opened its mouth to bite down. But the bite never came. There was a gentle thud as if something landed right next to them, then the sound of iron slicing through flesh and bone, and a short scream from the naga-ette. Lucca then felt the creature's grasp loosen, and she rolled away as fast as she could, opening her eyes as she got up.
"Thanks Cr-"she said, but stopped short when she saw her rescuer.
Standing there, by the body of the naga-ette, was a four-foot tall humanoid frog, clad in gold colored armored top, white pants, and a green cape. He carried a golden shield in his other hand, and he was looking at Lucca. Crono stood nearby, staring in wonder at the frog.
The frog took his sword out of the naga-ette's face, cleaned it off, and sheathed it.
"Lower thine guard and thou art allowing the enemy in," the frog said.
Lucca blinked, still staring. "You're...a talking frog."
"Aye," the frog replied. "My guise doth not incur thy trust?"
"Well..." Lucca hesitated. "...you're a talking frog!"
"If thou doth not trust me, I must be going," the frog said. "The queen awaits rescue inside."
"Hold on, Lucca," Crono said. "What's your name?" He asked the frog.
The frog looked at Crono, considering. "...Frog will do," he finally said.
"How did you find this place, Frog?" Crono asked. "We found out about it just by luck."
"Mystics," Frog replied. "Many died before any were willing to surrender the information to me."
"I see," Crono said, a smile coming onto his face.
"So," Frog said. "Doth thou desire to accompany me? Our enemy and the queen lies deep within this cathedral."
Crono glanced at Lucca and nodded, a confident smile on his face. Lucca sighed, smiled, then held her hand out to Frog. He nodded, and shook her hand. To her surprise he then drew it towards him a bit and kissed it.
"A pleasure to make thy acquaintance, lass," Frog said. "What is thy name?"
"Lucca," she said. "And this is..." she said, turning to Crono.
"Ah yes," Frog said, turning to Crono again. "Thou hath fine sword skills. It is truly a shame that thou doth not possess a sword more worthy of them." Frog held his hand out to Crono. Crono took it, and told Frog his name.
"Now that we're all acquainted," Crono started. "Let's find the queen."
"Oh, right," Lucca said. "Before we were attacked, we found that hairpin under the wall, remember?"
Frog tilted his head to the side. "Under the wall, you say?" He said, emphasizing "under".
"Yeah, come see," Lucca said, leading the way to the northern wall.
Upon coming to the wall, Lucca kneeled down and ran her hand under the wall, showing that there was a space between the wall and the floor, though small.
"Surely this must be a secret entrance," Frog said, running his own hand between the wall and floor. "Yet the way to open it escapes me."
"A lot of secret walls can just be pushed in, can't they?" Crono asked.
"True, there are some that can," Lucca said. "But not this one."
"Why not?" Crono asked.
Lucca nodded towards the wall. "There's not even a hint of a crack around this portion of the wall. For walls that can be pushed in, there should be a sign of a slit or crack on one or both of its sides. That would mean there was a hinge for it to swing on, or some sort of track for it to slide back on. But there's nothing like that here."
"Indeed, Lucca speaks truly," Frog said. "And a secret entrance that can be accessed by such direct means doth not fit the style of the mystics. They always have some type of switch elsewhere, surely that must be the case in this place as well."
Frog peered around the room, scanning for anything that stood out as a likely switch. His large frog eyes settled on a piano.
"There," he said. "Surely that piano must be the mechanism we seek."
They walked over to it, and Frog sat down on the bench. He concentrated, then played a haunting and yet strangely inspiring tune on it. As he played, they could also hear a faint cracking and groaning, then the wall they had been looking at slowly slid upwards, revealing a door behind it. Frog continued playing until the door was completely exposed, then he stopped and got off the bench.
"What song was that?" Crono asked.
"One that pains my heart to have to play," Frog said quietly. "Thou hath just heard the tune to the song the mystics made to worship their king, Magus. However, that it was this song encourages me. Such an obvious choice of song to open the path forward means that we are not dealing with an overly bright group of mystics. They should be fairly easy to trick. Listen to me, and we shall then go forward."
The three of them, having walked through the door, went down the dim hallway on the other side. A few candles lighted this part of the cathedral, a stark contrast from the darker, uninhabited part that they had come from. They ventured through the hallway casually, according to their plan. As they heard crude, guttural voices up ahead, they hoped their plan would work.
"Yeah, that boy sure cried a lot, didn't he?" Said one monstrous voice. "I was sure he'd wet his pants, but blast it! He just ran away, the slime."
"Ehh, you can't count on humans for anything," another weasel sounding voice said in reply.
"You can count on them to taste good," said a third, low voice.
As they laughed, they came into view. Walking towards Crono, Lucca and Frog were three strange creatures. Two of them were large, armor clad green monsters. Their muscles bulged beneath their armor, which was really second rate. Crono recognized their eyes as the same kind that had peered at him through the hole in the wall earlier, and realized that these were henches. The other was a diablos, a gargoyle like creature with a beak-like snout and bat-like wings.
They spotted the three intruders, and their bodies stiffened. They probably would have attacked immediately if it had just been Crono and Lucca. But the odd looking Frog caused them to have doubts as to the identities of these strangers.
"Er, hey there!" Lucca said, waving to them. "We just got back from Truce, you won't believe what we did! Made that fool Toma scream and hide!"
The diablos looked at Lucca suspiciously, sizing her up. One of the henches grunted.
"Who cares?" Said the grunting hench. "Toma's easy to scare, it's confronting him when he's not surprised that's the trick."
"Why you two still have your disguises on?" The diablos asked Crono and Lucca. He was still eyeing them suspiciously.
"We just felt like dressing up tonight," Crono said loudly. "We're in a fine mood after our victory over Toma!"
"Rookies," one of the henches muttered as they walked past the intruders.
Frog smirked once the three mystics had gone completely.
"Well done," he said. "Thou shouldst be in theatre."
They came to the end of the hall and entered a large room. There were stairs on both sides, leading up to various rooms on the second floor. In the middle of the room was a statue of someone Crono did not recognize. It was a tall man, with long hair that went down to just below his shoulders. His face was grim, and he had long pointed ears. He was wearing a long cape, and mail on his upper body. He had gloves on, and was carrying a scythe in one hand.
"Who's that?" Crono asked Frog, pointing to the statue.
"Magus..." Frog said, glaring at the statue.
Power certainly seemed evident in him, Crono thought as he gazed at the statue. He looked like a good fighter, in addition to being a wizard. He was certainly a leader, and yet it was strange. Magus, the King of the Mystics, seemed to be mostly human. Crono wondered how he had gotten to such a position.
"We must continue," Frog said.
"Where to?" Lucca asked. "There are a lot of doors in this room."
"A prisoner like her majesty is likely to be in the very back of the cathedral," Frog said. "We shall go through the rear door."
They continued on through the cathedral, the sounds of crude laughter coming from a room nearby. From the sounds accompanying the laughter, they guessed that it was the dining hall. They did not dare to imagine what kind of food the mystics were eating. It was a fact that the demonic mystics enjoyed human flesh quite often.
Past the statue of Magus were some stairs leading up to the door in the back of the room. They walked upwards, their heartbeats quickening as they approached the door. They were getting deep into the secret parts of the cathedral now, and it wouldn't be easy to escape if they were found out now. Luckily, most of the mystics seemed to be eating at this moment.
They came to the next room and went up another staircase. There were fewer candles in this part of the cathedral, making it a little bit harder to see. Lucca looked up at the ceiling as they walked through another hallway, and almost let loose a startled scream. Seeing her upset, Crono and Frog looked up at the ceiling too.
Glowing eyes were peering at the three of them from the ceiling. A few faint squeaks sounded from among the eyes, and Crono and the others realized that the ceiling was covered with bats. Very large bats, too. Frog looked closely at them, trying to figure out just what kind of bats they were. He feared he knew what they were, and he was right.
"Vamps," Frog whispered. "Large bats that feed on blood. I wonder why they're not attacking."
"Fed recently?" Lucca whispered back. "Bats usually feed earlier in the night. Right now it can't be earlier than two or three in the morning."
"Yes," Frog said. "Surely thou art correct. Stay cautious, however. We do not want to stir them."
They walked through the hallway, Lucca having her flame-thrower ready. They eventually came to a staircase leading down. As they went down it, the lights suddenly went out. They paused, their breathing seeming loud in the quiet of the dark. Suddenly Lucca felt something very large brush past her and she screamed, firing her flame-thrower all around her in the darkness, illuminating the room some.
The bats' eyes widened, and squeaks filled the room as they detached from the ceiling and attacked Crono, Lucca and Frog. Lucca shot her flame-thrower around them, and more squeaks filled the room as various vamps caught on fire and fell to the ground dead. Something else was audible in the room amid the sounds of squeaking and Lucca's flame-thrower spurting jets of flame. Lucca couldn't quite make it out though with all the other sounds going on.
As the last of the bats fled the room, only a few sounds were left. Lucca clearly heard something large hissing and spitting ferociously, and the sounds of Crono and Frog battling it. Lucca pointed her flame-thrower in the general direction of the struggle, and fired. She was treated to a momentary view of a huge snake slithering in and out between Crono and Frog, trying its best to strike at them while dodging their attacks.
Having a moment to rest, Lucca was finally able to think clearly. She put away her flame-thrower and took out a light, attaching it to her helmet. She flicked it on and it shined at the snake and her friends, giving a clear view at last. The snake already was covered in slashes and bruises, yet it didn't seem to be slowing down at all. Having a clear view, Lucca took out her gun.
She aimed carefully, trying her best to follow the snake's movements as it struck and dodged. Frog slashed upwards, causing the snake to rear up in the air, making its full height clear. Lucca took this chance and shot, her bullet landing right in the snake's head. It hissed painfully, and fell to the ground. Crono and Frog jumped out of its range as it writhed on the ground. Finally it died, and they all caught a breath after the sudden and quick battle.
"Well," said Frog. "Let us hope the stirring of the bats did not alarm any other mystics to our presence."
They moved onwards, going through a door and coming to dimly lit rooms again. Lucca shut off her light but didn't put it away, in case any more surprise attacks came. They moved through the various rooms and halls of the cathedral, getting further and further into it. They had only been in here for a few hours, but it seemed like an eternity had passed. This had to be the longest night ever in Crono and Lucca's lives so far.
Eventually they came to a walkway that led over a rather featureless floor below. Frog surveyed the walkway carefully, obviously suspicious that it contained a trap. He reached into his a small green pouch attached to his belt and took out a coin. He tossed it onto the walkway, with no result. Considering this for a moment, Frog motioned for Crono and Lucca to stay where they were and set out across the walkway.
It went smoothly for a short time, but then suddenly with the sound of a sword unsheathing, a spike shot out of the ground beneath Frog, and he barely jumped back in time, only to have another spike go right through his cape as he landed. He ripped his cape free, and stood up, looking back at Crono and Lucca.
"Though this walkway is trapped indeed, I see no other way across," he said. "Thou must risk it."
Crono and Frog walked very carefully and very slowly across the walkway. Lucca decided to balance on the railing, carefully putting one foot right in front of the other as she walked. Despite being a very scientific and mechanical person, Lucca was an exceptional athlete. Very luckily, they got across the walkway without being gored, and even without Lucca falling.
They stepped through the door on the other side of the walkway, and immediately paused. There, on the far end of the room, was the Chancellor. In front of him, facing away from the three was Queen Leene herself. They had finally found her, and she was still alive.
Queen Leene was looking defiantly at the chancellor. Though such defiance would typically enrage a kidnapper, he seemed to be very calm.
"Idle threats will not save you, Leene," the chancellor said.
"My threats are not idle, beast," Queen Leene said. "If you try to kill me, you will have a fight on your hands."
The chancellor laughed loudly, amused greatly by her response. He got up from his chair and picked up his staff. He detached the top of it, revealing a blade. The staff apparently was actually a spear. The chancellor kicked his chair aside, leaped up on top of the desk, and then swung his arm to throw the spear at the queen, who braced herself.
With a loud bang, the chancellor recoiled his hand in pain, dropping the spear and stumbling backwards off of the desk, falling onto the ground. The queen whirled around to see Lucca lowering her smoking gun.
"Well done, Lucca," Frog said, striding quickly past Lucca to the queen.
"Glenn!" The queen said happily, taking Frog's hands into hers as she kneeled down to greet him.
"Forgive me, my queen," Frog said, bowing to her.
The queen looked quizzically at Frog. "But Glenn, there's nothing to-"
"Accursed frog!" Came the chancellor's voice, cutting Queen Leene off. "It's time you jumped off this mortal coil!"
The chancellor climbed up onto the desk and leaped at Frog, who clenched his fist and swung it into the chancellor's face as he flew through the air, sending him crashing back into the desk. The chancellor winced, and painfully got back to his feet. Frog was breathing heavily. The chancellor looked at him, then his eyes darted to Crono and Lucca, still standing a few feet back.
"I see..." he said quietly. "It looks as if I'll need to resort to that..."
Hearing the chancellor's words, Frog unsheathed his sword, and nodded to Crono and Lucca. Lucca reloaded her gun and Crono unsheathed his wooden sword. The chancellor leaped up onto the desk yet again, and raised his arms.
"Hurry!" Frog said. "We must stop him before he completes his transformation!"
Frog and Crono rushed at the chancellor, who was beginning to be engulfed by electricity, a look on his face as if it was bringing him great satisfaction and pleasure. The queen hurriedly backed away towards the back of the room, fear on her face. Frog and Crono leaped at the chancellor, but unfortunately they were hurled backwards by the electricity coursing all through and around the chancellor. Crono looked at Lucca and nodded. She aimed her gun and shot, but one arc of electricity shot out like lightning and struck the bullet, causing it to explode before it hit the chancellor, hurling Frog and Crono back further.
Their efforts to halt the transformation proven to be in vain, they could only watch as the electricity completely engulfed the chancellor. His shape within the electrical barrier started to change and expand. Lucca stepped in front of the queen, prepared to guard her against whatever the chancellor would emerge as. Soon the electricity died down, and they saw what the chancellor really was.
Its large girth spread over the desk and onto the floor, was the namesake of the part of Guardia Forest the cathedral lay in. It was Yakra, the large blubbery and horned mystic. Its only appendages were barely recognizable as such, being four extremely short legs. They were only made apparent by the presence of the huge claws they had, which were digging into the floor of the room, having broken through the floorboards.
Yakra growled, focusing on Crono and Frog. His claws started to click repeatedly and fast on the ground, and then he charged towards them like a train. Crono and Frog leaped to the side, barely avoiding the large monster. Lucca shot it in the side as it turned, but it barely noticed the bullet. It seemed that its blubber had very little nerve endings. It also likely served to slow the bullet down considerably, keeping it from penetrating deep enough to strike anything vital.
"Guys!" Lucca yelled. "Make your strikes strong and deep! Crono, I'm not sure how much your wooden sword is going to be able to do!"
Crono cursed silently, knowing that it wouldn't be able to do much against a creature like this. Still, he'd have to try his best. He couldn't just stay to the side while his friends fought Yakra. He ran at Yakra, raising his sword to attack. Yakra reared up and hit Crono with his claws, causing him to stumble back and fall to the ground.
Frog immediately followed, coming at Yakra from the other side and stabbing his sword into him. He hadn't done it with enough force, however, and it only served to alert Yakra to the attack. Yakra turned and roared. Frog took the sword out of Yakra and jumped back as the beast attempted to butt him with his horned head.
"He hits hard, but he isn't very fast," Crono thought. "The key is to strike him hard when he isn't looking right at you."
Crono ran to where Yakra's back was facing while Yakra was still concentrated on Frog. He then turned and ran at Yakra's back, jumped in the air, and drove his sword downwards as he landed on the back of Yakra. Unfortunately, the wooden sword didn't penetrate the thick layer of blubber at all. Yakra turned and shook Crono off, then his cheeks bulged as something came up into his mouth. An iron ball shot from the mouth like a cannonball, and Crono instinctively ducked. The iron ball went right over him, but broke his sword that he had been holding up as he dropped. Lucca tackled the queen to the ground as the iron ball rushed over them, going right through the wall.
Frustrated, Crono threw the pieces of his sword to the ground and watched as Frog faced off with Yakra, ducking under and leaping over the various lunges of the monster. Seeing that Crono was basically out of action, Lucca rushed forward.
"Guard her!" She said as she went past Crono, taking out her flame-thrower.
As she rushed to Yakra's back, she saw something odd happening to it. Various openings in it became visible, and soon needles emerged. The area around the needles swelled, obviously building up pressure. Lucca skidded to a halt and rolled to the side as many needles came flying at her. She then fired a jet of flame at Yakra, setting his back on fire.
Yakra let loose a pained roar, and turned to face Lucca, fury in his eyes. He charged, and she shot him in the face as she ran to the side to avoid him. It didn't seem to affect him much though, as he crashed into the wall and immediately charged again, following Lucca closely. Lucca looked back just as an iron ball was shot at her from the pursuing beast. She screamed as she ducked down, but stumbled as she did and fell to the ground. Yakra ducked his head and butted her, sending her slamming against the wall.
Yakra still was furious and in pain as the flames continued to burn on his back. In his rage he briefly spotted Frog charging as he turned, and shot flaming needles at him. Frog dodged just in time and quickly put out a small fire that had set on his cape from a needle that had passed through it. Yakra growled and charged at Frog. Frog prepared to jump to the side, but halted as he heard Crono.
"Frog!" Crono yelled. "Use this!"
Crono threw the chancellor's spear to Frog, who caught it. As Yakra got to Frog, and lowered his head to try to gore Frog with his horns, Frog lowered the spear. The speed at which Yakra was charging drove the spear right into the top of his lowered head, between his horns. Frog leaped over Yakra as he squealed and stumbled to the ground. Then all was still. Finally, Yakra was dead.
Crono and the queen walked over to Frog and Lucca. Lucca was holding her sides in pain, having taken quite a beating from Yakra.
"Thank you, all of you," Queen Leene said to them. Crono and Lucca smiled in acknowledgement, and Frog bowed.
"'Twas our pleasure, majesty," Frog said.
"We should really get you back now," Lucca said. "The whole castle is probably really worried."
Leene nodded, and they began to make their way out of the room. As they did, they suddenly heard a muffled thumping coming from a closet on the side of the room. Frog unsheathed his sword and cautiously made his way over to the closet. He turned the knob, and out stumbled the real chancellor, still tied up and gagged. Seeing the queen, his eyes widened and he hopped frantically over to her, tripping when he got to her.
Crono and Lucca untied him and helped him to his feet.
"So that's where you were!" Leene said.
The chancellor fell to his knees and bowed to Leene.
"Forgive me, majesty!" He said. "I was not strong enough to escape capture by the demons! If it wasn't for me..."
Leene smiled warmly, and helped the chancellor to his feet.
"It is not your fault," she said. "You are not a warrior. You are an advisor, and a close family friend. I am just glad that you are alive and well."
The chancellor smiled appreciatively, and nodded. Crono looked at Frog, to see him looking downward, a sad look on his face. He was about to say something to Frog when he looked up and spoke.
"Well, let us be off," he said. "The king will be happy to have you back."
With that, they all set off to exit the cathedral and return to the castle.