Chapter 3
Preacher
Ritz: Skarcastor (Elementalist x4)
(Assassin x3)- Expert job that relies both on powerful lunge attacks and elementals that tear open the air
Weapon: Rapier (Vent de Dieu) A-Ability: Scar Force
-Burntear: Damages with Fire
-Freezetear: Damages with Ice
-Bolttear: Damages with Thunder
-Light Sphere: Powerful Holy attack: Damages and causes random status ailment
-Focus: Increases All stats
-Steel Twister: Damages surrounding enemies and causes knock back
-Prima Strike: Powerful magic-supperior to Ultima and Omega
A-Ability: Expert Lunge
-Armor Strike: Weak attack, but negates enemy defense
-Skill Strike: Damages and prevent enemy from using an ability
-Wind of Heaven: Increases speed and evasiveness with each attack: also damages.
-Stone Break: Destroys weapon, armor, helmet or accessory R-Ability: God Speed
-Attacks 2-4 times when attacked by adjacent unit S-Abiltiy: Courage
-Stats increase as damage is recieved C-Abilty: Scar Combo
-Failproof combo for Skarcastors
Ambervale Palace.....
Ritz stood back aghast as the flames rose from the tall spires of Ambervale Palace. She had come looking for Babus Swain, and this is what she found. Ink black plumes of smoke poured from the once proud palace as the fire licked up all that they touched. She couldn't even move.
"Babus!" she called out into the roaring inferno, but there was no response from anyone. Not a soul. "No..." she said silently. She drew her Vent de Dieu and held it up to the darkening sky that was waiting to pour rain the quench the angry hellfire. She drew from the deep well of Viera magic that dwelt within her and with the speed of a bolt of lightning, she dropped down the blade with a loud cry of fury. The Ice elemental magic burst from her body, and shot into the heart of the burning castle. The strike came with such force that it split the air in two, causing a loud thunder with the expanding vacuum. As the arctic strike hit the collapsing gate and tore it open, its icy winds spreading all over the charred walls. Then it stopped. In an instant, the Freezetear had stopped much of the fire. Ritz looked into the sky and felt the first droplets of the oncoming deluge on her face. The rain would finish the job, she told herself as she ran into the castle.
The carnage was unbelievable. Mangled, burnt bodies littered the once great hall, their blood smeared across the walls as if attacked by a great monster. Not a soul was alive. Ritz picked up the pace as she raced down the passages of the palace, some of which were still housed the dying flames that had consumed the magnificent fortress.
"Babus!" she called as she entered the main court. It was there that the most disturbing sight lay. The glossy floor were slick with blood that had poured down from the walls. The was because no less than a dozen soldiers and citizens were hanging there, suspended by cross-shaped knives in their bodies. The corpses themselves adorned the walls with their arms spread out like cross. They were all very dead.
Suddenly, Ritz heard a moan coming from the distant end of chamber, where the head of the castle would have sat. It was protected by a blood red curtain that only hinted at the bodies behind them. Again she heard the low moaning and at once recognized it as Babus. She bolted towards the curtain, rent it two with her rapier, and fell to her knees.
There, suspended in the same cross-shaped fashion as the rest of the men, were Babus and Shara. Shara was most definitely dead, and for a moment, Ritz almost cried out for her. Shara was a member of their Clan, and the first friend she ever had in Ivalice. But her mourning was cut short was a set of softly spoken, painful words. It was Babus. He was still clinging onto a hair thin string of life. He muttered the words again.
"Save your strength!" Ritz told him. "I'm going to get you down. I'm going to help you!" His dying body shuddered in agony, but he managed to whisper the words again:
"Get....the book....they know......" he struggled to say before he spat up more blood.
"What are you talking about?" Ritz answered confused. But before Babus could say any more, a blinding flash of light erupted out of nowhere. A ball of energy struck Babus's suspended body and he cried out in torment. Ritz was hurled aside by the attack, and when she regained her bearings, she was the poor Runeskeeper fall from the wall, his body rendered into stone by a Break attack. It shattered as it struck the ground. And just like that, he was gone.
"No!" Ritz cried out as she whipped around to face the assailant.
Stepping out of the shadows, he was clothed in an emerald green robe and was adorned with brilliant gold jewelry. A Bangaa Bishop. He walked out calmly, chuckling to himself. He carried a very odd weapon. Instead of a rod, it was a giant steel cross with a glowing blue jem in the center. His arm was wrapped around it, as he held it battle ready. The red skinned reptile hissed in glee.
"Who are you," Ritz demanded coldly. The Bishop walked into the middle of the chamber, where the overturned throne was.
"There are some who would call me God's Messenger. Those men that you saw on the way here would probably thing of me more as the devil, though," he said, notably without the stereotypical hissing that usually followed Bangaa dialect. That was a sign that he was of the Bangaa aristocracy.
"You killed those men?" she asked, unflinching. The Bishop laughed.
"Every last one. But these two gave me something of a struggle. But as you see, it is nothing that I could not deal with." Ritz winced as she though of Shara's desecrated body.
"What is you name?"
"I am Pious, the First Megalomancer. That is all you need to know for know, as soon you will be rid of this mortal existence," he said and he raised his Cross and slammed it into the floor. It's heavy frame pulverized the tile below it, and when he released it, it stood on its own.
"What gives you the right to do this?" she asked as she raised her sword to face him. "To kill innocents?"
"I am empowered by God, of course. I am merely executing justice upon the unholy," Pious said smugly.
"Justice? It is justice to slaughter women and children? You're a monster!" Ritz yelled in rage.
"God will be the judge of my motives!" he said.
"Then let him judge!" Ritz cried.
Ritz slashed the air with her slender rapier. It released a powerful Bolttear that cut a fissure in the ornate mosaic floor of the room. Wild arcs of lighting exploded forth, striking everything in sight. Pious quickly grabbed his Cross and with agility that would seem impossible while carrying such a heavy weapon, lept easily out of the way of the vacuum. Ritz struck again and again, casting long, vicious gashes in the floor from which Fire spit forth. Pious countered with his Water spell, easily stopping the attack. He charged Ritz, swinging his weapon like a long, hefty staff. It struck with impossible speed.
Ritz dodged the blows by little more than a hair's breadth, knowing full well that a direct hit with the mighty steel crucifix would easily kill her.
She saw an opening and when for it. She lunged forward with the Vent de Dieu, aiming for the heart of the vile Bishop. But once again, with seemingly unnatural grace and agility, he sidestepped the blow. Carried by momentum, the two warriors stumbled across the room. They stopped and stared at eachother, panting for breath. Pious looked at Shara's suspended body and laughed.
"You'll be happy to know that the Viera screamed most exquisitely when she died. There is no sound more pleasant to me than the cries of the unrightous," he said snidely, knowing full well how enraged it would make Ritz. It succeeded.
"Shut up!" she cried, charging in a fit of blind rage. She had fallen right into his trap. Instantly, Pious let loose his most powerful attack. He held his Cross high into the air and from it burst a wave of blinding Holy energy that engulfed the entire room. The rumbling of destruction shook the entire palace as the Holy attack unleashed its fury. Pious laughed haughtily as Ritz was absorbed completely by the white oblivion.
"Know the wrath of god, mortal!" he cried out as the attack subsided and Ritz's body fell to the floor. White energy cackled around her as she lay motionless on the shattered tile."Now it is complete," he said as he began to walk away, satisfied.
No sooner had she turned around than his intuition kicked in. Acting on impulse, Pious swung around and blocked Ritz's thrust. The attack came with such force that it drove him back and left him off balance.
"It's not over!" Ritz cried as she held her sword high, preparing for her ultimate attack, Prima Strike. As the Chaotic energies of the universe gathered around her weapon, Pious found himself unable to move. He was paralyzed with fear. He had never witnessed such power before. His mind could not comprehend it. Swirling spirals of purple light burst forth from the Vent de Dieu as it seemed to howl with a rage all its own. Finally, Ritz struck with the power of a lost magic. The fury of the attack drove her into Pious's Cross, which he held up as shield. It was not to be. To maelstrom of power shattered the blue jewel in the center, ground the metal into dust and plowed right through the Bishop's chest. At that single point, all the force of the blow focused, and Pious screamed in pain of unimaginable severity as the embroiled energy exploded into his body. Then it ended. His face frozen in a look of shock and agony, the Bangaa slumped over and died.
Ritz stood still for several moments, before collapsing in a anguished mix of exhaustion and mourning for her lost friends. It was easily the most intense fight of her life. She didn't know how she managed to survive the Holy attack, but it left her drained. Limping, she rose and walked over to the shattered, petrified body of Babus and the Shara's suspended corpse. Carefully, she removed the knives from her body and allowed her to fall into her arms. For the first time in ages, she openly wept.
But even that was cut short by an unnatural scream. Ritz whipped her head around and saw the lifeless body of Pious rise from the its dead state. Some sort of dark life was emanating from the Megalomancer's body.
"It will not end this way!" he said in a distorted voice. He raised the shattered Cross into the air in a jerky movement that could only come from a person who's internal organs had been pulverized. The broken jewel began to glimmer faintly, then, like a monster coming to life, shrouded itself with a red glow.
"Come to me! My avenger!" Pious cried out with the last of he revived strength. The jewel shattered into a thousand pieces as a dark cloud of energy formed over him. It seemed to boil in the air like some sort of evil thunderhead. Then it suddenly took shape. Glowing eyes appeared as the cloud burst into black flame. It was a giant, black Bomb. It roared violently, exposing its dagger like teeth.
"My avenger! Turn this worthless palace into dust!" were Pious's last words. Obediently, the Bomb let out a beastly scream as it began to enlarge, swelling with explosive power. Ritz realized she didn't have the strength to defeat such a monster. She sat in horror as the Bomb grew, cradling Shara's body in her arms. It roared again as it reached its limit and prepared to release its fiery wrath.
At that final moment, light lightning, a pair of flashing blades came out of nowhere, striking the Bomb with the dual Prima attack, Prima Cross. The Bomb wailed as the attack caused it to loose stability. Instead of creating a cataclysmic explosion, it imploded, leaving only a pool of black oil where it once was. Pious's body stared at the puddle with shocked eyes, before it too disintegrated into dust.
Marche sheathed his Paradox Blades in the scabbards around his waist. He walked over to Ritz, who was still clutching Shara's blood soaked body like a child. She placed it gently on the ground and rose to her weakened feet. No sooner, had she risen, though, than did she finally give in to her exhaustion, falling into Marche's blacked clothed arms.
Ritz: Skarcastor (Elementalist x4)
(Assassin x3)- Expert job that relies both on powerful lunge attacks and elementals that tear open the air
Weapon: Rapier (Vent de Dieu) A-Ability: Scar Force
-Burntear: Damages with Fire
-Freezetear: Damages with Ice
-Bolttear: Damages with Thunder
-Light Sphere: Powerful Holy attack: Damages and causes random status ailment
-Focus: Increases All stats
-Steel Twister: Damages surrounding enemies and causes knock back
-Prima Strike: Powerful magic-supperior to Ultima and Omega
A-Ability: Expert Lunge
-Armor Strike: Weak attack, but negates enemy defense
-Skill Strike: Damages and prevent enemy from using an ability
-Wind of Heaven: Increases speed and evasiveness with each attack: also damages.
-Stone Break: Destroys weapon, armor, helmet or accessory R-Ability: God Speed
-Attacks 2-4 times when attacked by adjacent unit S-Abiltiy: Courage
-Stats increase as damage is recieved C-Abilty: Scar Combo
-Failproof combo for Skarcastors
Ambervale Palace.....
Ritz stood back aghast as the flames rose from the tall spires of Ambervale Palace. She had come looking for Babus Swain, and this is what she found. Ink black plumes of smoke poured from the once proud palace as the fire licked up all that they touched. She couldn't even move.
"Babus!" she called out into the roaring inferno, but there was no response from anyone. Not a soul. "No..." she said silently. She drew her Vent de Dieu and held it up to the darkening sky that was waiting to pour rain the quench the angry hellfire. She drew from the deep well of Viera magic that dwelt within her and with the speed of a bolt of lightning, she dropped down the blade with a loud cry of fury. The Ice elemental magic burst from her body, and shot into the heart of the burning castle. The strike came with such force that it split the air in two, causing a loud thunder with the expanding vacuum. As the arctic strike hit the collapsing gate and tore it open, its icy winds spreading all over the charred walls. Then it stopped. In an instant, the Freezetear had stopped much of the fire. Ritz looked into the sky and felt the first droplets of the oncoming deluge on her face. The rain would finish the job, she told herself as she ran into the castle.
The carnage was unbelievable. Mangled, burnt bodies littered the once great hall, their blood smeared across the walls as if attacked by a great monster. Not a soul was alive. Ritz picked up the pace as she raced down the passages of the palace, some of which were still housed the dying flames that had consumed the magnificent fortress.
"Babus!" she called as she entered the main court. It was there that the most disturbing sight lay. The glossy floor were slick with blood that had poured down from the walls. The was because no less than a dozen soldiers and citizens were hanging there, suspended by cross-shaped knives in their bodies. The corpses themselves adorned the walls with their arms spread out like cross. They were all very dead.
Suddenly, Ritz heard a moan coming from the distant end of chamber, where the head of the castle would have sat. It was protected by a blood red curtain that only hinted at the bodies behind them. Again she heard the low moaning and at once recognized it as Babus. She bolted towards the curtain, rent it two with her rapier, and fell to her knees.
There, suspended in the same cross-shaped fashion as the rest of the men, were Babus and Shara. Shara was most definitely dead, and for a moment, Ritz almost cried out for her. Shara was a member of their Clan, and the first friend she ever had in Ivalice. But her mourning was cut short was a set of softly spoken, painful words. It was Babus. He was still clinging onto a hair thin string of life. He muttered the words again.
"Save your strength!" Ritz told him. "I'm going to get you down. I'm going to help you!" His dying body shuddered in agony, but he managed to whisper the words again:
"Get....the book....they know......" he struggled to say before he spat up more blood.
"What are you talking about?" Ritz answered confused. But before Babus could say any more, a blinding flash of light erupted out of nowhere. A ball of energy struck Babus's suspended body and he cried out in torment. Ritz was hurled aside by the attack, and when she regained her bearings, she was the poor Runeskeeper fall from the wall, his body rendered into stone by a Break attack. It shattered as it struck the ground. And just like that, he was gone.
"No!" Ritz cried out as she whipped around to face the assailant.
Stepping out of the shadows, he was clothed in an emerald green robe and was adorned with brilliant gold jewelry. A Bangaa Bishop. He walked out calmly, chuckling to himself. He carried a very odd weapon. Instead of a rod, it was a giant steel cross with a glowing blue jem in the center. His arm was wrapped around it, as he held it battle ready. The red skinned reptile hissed in glee.
"Who are you," Ritz demanded coldly. The Bishop walked into the middle of the chamber, where the overturned throne was.
"There are some who would call me God's Messenger. Those men that you saw on the way here would probably thing of me more as the devil, though," he said, notably without the stereotypical hissing that usually followed Bangaa dialect. That was a sign that he was of the Bangaa aristocracy.
"You killed those men?" she asked, unflinching. The Bishop laughed.
"Every last one. But these two gave me something of a struggle. But as you see, it is nothing that I could not deal with." Ritz winced as she though of Shara's desecrated body.
"What is you name?"
"I am Pious, the First Megalomancer. That is all you need to know for know, as soon you will be rid of this mortal existence," he said and he raised his Cross and slammed it into the floor. It's heavy frame pulverized the tile below it, and when he released it, it stood on its own.
"What gives you the right to do this?" she asked as she raised her sword to face him. "To kill innocents?"
"I am empowered by God, of course. I am merely executing justice upon the unholy," Pious said smugly.
"Justice? It is justice to slaughter women and children? You're a monster!" Ritz yelled in rage.
"God will be the judge of my motives!" he said.
"Then let him judge!" Ritz cried.
Ritz slashed the air with her slender rapier. It released a powerful Bolttear that cut a fissure in the ornate mosaic floor of the room. Wild arcs of lighting exploded forth, striking everything in sight. Pious quickly grabbed his Cross and with agility that would seem impossible while carrying such a heavy weapon, lept easily out of the way of the vacuum. Ritz struck again and again, casting long, vicious gashes in the floor from which Fire spit forth. Pious countered with his Water spell, easily stopping the attack. He charged Ritz, swinging his weapon like a long, hefty staff. It struck with impossible speed.
Ritz dodged the blows by little more than a hair's breadth, knowing full well that a direct hit with the mighty steel crucifix would easily kill her.
She saw an opening and when for it. She lunged forward with the Vent de Dieu, aiming for the heart of the vile Bishop. But once again, with seemingly unnatural grace and agility, he sidestepped the blow. Carried by momentum, the two warriors stumbled across the room. They stopped and stared at eachother, panting for breath. Pious looked at Shara's suspended body and laughed.
"You'll be happy to know that the Viera screamed most exquisitely when she died. There is no sound more pleasant to me than the cries of the unrightous," he said snidely, knowing full well how enraged it would make Ritz. It succeeded.
"Shut up!" she cried, charging in a fit of blind rage. She had fallen right into his trap. Instantly, Pious let loose his most powerful attack. He held his Cross high into the air and from it burst a wave of blinding Holy energy that engulfed the entire room. The rumbling of destruction shook the entire palace as the Holy attack unleashed its fury. Pious laughed haughtily as Ritz was absorbed completely by the white oblivion.
"Know the wrath of god, mortal!" he cried out as the attack subsided and Ritz's body fell to the floor. White energy cackled around her as she lay motionless on the shattered tile."Now it is complete," he said as he began to walk away, satisfied.
No sooner had she turned around than his intuition kicked in. Acting on impulse, Pious swung around and blocked Ritz's thrust. The attack came with such force that it drove him back and left him off balance.
"It's not over!" Ritz cried as she held her sword high, preparing for her ultimate attack, Prima Strike. As the Chaotic energies of the universe gathered around her weapon, Pious found himself unable to move. He was paralyzed with fear. He had never witnessed such power before. His mind could not comprehend it. Swirling spirals of purple light burst forth from the Vent de Dieu as it seemed to howl with a rage all its own. Finally, Ritz struck with the power of a lost magic. The fury of the attack drove her into Pious's Cross, which he held up as shield. It was not to be. To maelstrom of power shattered the blue jewel in the center, ground the metal into dust and plowed right through the Bishop's chest. At that single point, all the force of the blow focused, and Pious screamed in pain of unimaginable severity as the embroiled energy exploded into his body. Then it ended. His face frozen in a look of shock and agony, the Bangaa slumped over and died.
Ritz stood still for several moments, before collapsing in a anguished mix of exhaustion and mourning for her lost friends. It was easily the most intense fight of her life. She didn't know how she managed to survive the Holy attack, but it left her drained. Limping, she rose and walked over to the shattered, petrified body of Babus and the Shara's suspended corpse. Carefully, she removed the knives from her body and allowed her to fall into her arms. For the first time in ages, she openly wept.
But even that was cut short by an unnatural scream. Ritz whipped her head around and saw the lifeless body of Pious rise from the its dead state. Some sort of dark life was emanating from the Megalomancer's body.
"It will not end this way!" he said in a distorted voice. He raised the shattered Cross into the air in a jerky movement that could only come from a person who's internal organs had been pulverized. The broken jewel began to glimmer faintly, then, like a monster coming to life, shrouded itself with a red glow.
"Come to me! My avenger!" Pious cried out with the last of he revived strength. The jewel shattered into a thousand pieces as a dark cloud of energy formed over him. It seemed to boil in the air like some sort of evil thunderhead. Then it suddenly took shape. Glowing eyes appeared as the cloud burst into black flame. It was a giant, black Bomb. It roared violently, exposing its dagger like teeth.
"My avenger! Turn this worthless palace into dust!" were Pious's last words. Obediently, the Bomb let out a beastly scream as it began to enlarge, swelling with explosive power. Ritz realized she didn't have the strength to defeat such a monster. She sat in horror as the Bomb grew, cradling Shara's body in her arms. It roared again as it reached its limit and prepared to release its fiery wrath.
At that final moment, light lightning, a pair of flashing blades came out of nowhere, striking the Bomb with the dual Prima attack, Prima Cross. The Bomb wailed as the attack caused it to loose stability. Instead of creating a cataclysmic explosion, it imploded, leaving only a pool of black oil where it once was. Pious's body stared at the puddle with shocked eyes, before it too disintegrated into dust.
Marche sheathed his Paradox Blades in the scabbards around his waist. He walked over to Ritz, who was still clutching Shara's blood soaked body like a child. She placed it gently on the ground and rose to her weakened feet. No sooner, had she risen, though, than did she finally give in to her exhaustion, falling into Marche's blacked clothed arms.