Sigma's Note: I greatly apologize for my extended sabbatical, but I've been busy with a huge writing project for another site, plus school and writers block combined to make a nasty deterrent for my writing of this Fanfic. I'll try to start it up again.
Is there a way to transfer this to the new FFTA category without losing all my Reviews? Call me egotistical, but I enjoy having a big number of reviews for my stories.
Chapter 13
Phantom
Somewhere in the Northern Regions......
"I see that Kreiger was eliminated. That's something of a surprise."
"It is my fault, Lord Archemis. I failed to eliminate my brother when I had the chance. Had I done that, Master Kreiger may have had a better chance."
"It doesn't matter. It did give me the opportunity to gauge the power of the Soulvetar. And the Destroyer did manage to eliminate the Skarcastor before he was felled by that remarkable magic. Sagaro!"
"Yes my lord?"
"Do you know of their new destination?"
"With the death of the girl, the Soulvetar is most likely headed for Ghent at Deti. He cannot be allowed to revive her."
"Yes, the Sage. The one who can defy the reaper himself. Retrieve Mara for me. Have her intercept the Monk and the Soulvetar at Sienna Gorge."
"Of course, Lord Archemis."
"Sagaro, wait!"
"My Lord?"
"She is already here. Come out, woman!"
"I see you are still as sharp as ever, Lord Archemis. I did not expect that I would be able to evade your eye for very long."
"I do not see merely with human eyes. I suppose you were here from the beginning?
"Yes, my Lord."
"Good. Then go. Do not allow them to reach the Sage of Deti."
"Of course. I will not fail you, Lord Archemis."
Sienna Gorge...
A single golden chocobo pulled a cart through the red-brown stone walls of the Gorge. It was nearing sunset as the solemn precession walked through the canyon. The cart hosted a sturdy glass dome with a body inside, dressed in brilliant red garments with a veiled face. She was deathly white, her body preserved from decay my herbs and the magic of a Black Monk. Ivan and Marche walked beside the cart, Marche glancing over to look at the woman he loved, his eyes filled with utter, interminable sadness. He had lost everything in his life. His friends in two worlds, gone, brought to their deaths by the same madman that had facilitated the death of Ritz. It was almost too much for him to bear. His last hope was the lone sage a top a spire castle in the middle of Deti Plains, beyond the Gorge of Dawn that they were treading through.
The wind rustled through the Gorge, blowing Marche's long blonde ponytail back.
"What do you know about this Sage?" Marche asked Ivan.
"His name is Ghent Forescythe. He is part of the Nu Mou Science Guild that believes less in the mystic arts and more in mathematics and chemistry. In recent years they've all but overtaken the mystic Nu Mou, but not in a hostile way. The Nu Mou believe in logic and reason beyond all else, and took to the new sciences instantly. The Moogles may be great machinists, but their scienticific prowess cannot approach that of the Nu Mou. They seemed to have merge magical study with scientific study to discover new wonders in the universe. Ghent apparently found the ultimate power through their science, the power over ultimate death, death that not even the Phoenix can revive. However, he refused to share it with his colleagues, retreating to Deti Plains to live like a hermit. His existence is a closely guarded secret among the Guild, as they do not wish this power to fall into the wrong hands," Ivan explained.
"How do you know about him?" Marche replied.
"Alchemis tried to enlist him in his service to build an army of soldiers that could resurrect themselves after falling in battle. Ghent may be a bizarre character, but he certainly saw the trouble in that, and refused. I'm not sure why Archemis didn't kill him right then and there, but he didn't."
"That seems awfully compassionate of him," Marche said.
"I think Archemis thought, and probably still thinks, that he can use Ghent for something. However, he may change his mind if we manage to revive Ritz," Ivan said.
"We will. We have to."
The sun was setting. The sky burst in deep purples and fiery oranges as the sun sank beneath the horizon, the walls of the canyon glittering like rubies. The bright red color reminded Marche too much of Ritz as he walked along. She lay next to him, so close, but still separated by the impenetrable veil of death. Her red hair still shone as it did when she was alive. He pressed his hand against the glass, overcome with sorrow. He felt tears welling up in his eyes, but shook them off as he and Ivan continued to walk on towards their goal. The Chocobo was the strongest animal they could find, and he and Ivan were more than prepared to walk all night to reach Deti as soon as possible.
However, as much as they were driven to, sleep threatened to overcome them. In the blackness of night, Marche and Ivan found themselves sitting around a camp fire, the Chocobo lying behind them, whispering quiet "warks" as it slept. The glass casing that held Ritz's delicate body was covered with a blood red blanket, as if the girl herself was covered for sleep.
Marche just stared into the flickering fire, his body and mind exhausted. Ivan sat meditating silently, the hilt of his sword pressed against his forehead and the blade driven into the ground. Marche envied him. The Monk could lose himself in his meditation, be free from emotion and anxiety, free from his consciousness, floating in the nothingness of blank thought, only the mentally spoken words of a mantra echoing in his mind.
It was then that Marche noticed something. A single tear streaming down the great lizard's face. The rest of his body remained stoic, slow deep breaths visible from his chest and nostrils at the end of his long snout, but that single tear betrayed something within him.
"You truly did love her, didn't you?" Ivan suddenly said.
"What?" Marche said in surprise.
"I didn't realize how deep your feelings went for each other. I can now sense how your soul feels shattered, like a vital part of it is missing," Ivan said.
"How do you..."Marche trailed off.
"I can project my mind over an entire area in my meditation. I can sense the spirits of the ground and the sky and living beings around us. Only in meditation, I can grasp their fears, their hopes, their desires as tangible things. But you, all I sense around you is coldness and emptiness. I pity you, but at the same time, I admire you. I can sense the overwhelming emotions within, threatening to burst out and unleash whatever dark, hellspawned demons you hold inside your tortures soul. But you push them back. You are a very strong person, stronger than any I have seen before," Ivan said in a low tone. Marche remained silent for a moment, watching as the flame danced before them.
"Have you ever lost someone you've loved, Ivan?" Marche said.
"I cannot say that I have. My inner darkness comes from my past deeds, not from the torture of loss," Ivan replied.
"I suppose I never fully understood how much of a part of me Ritz was until it was too late. Now, it feels Kreiger stuck his sword in me as well, but my body refused to die. It feels like my soul departed along with hers, and I am nothing but the walking dead," Marche said sullenly. He lay back on the hard ground and looked up at the stars, so different from the ones he had seen so often in his own world.
"I don't recognize any of those constellations," Marche said. "In my world, I could point out a dozen shapes in the stars. Orion, Libra, Draco. Now, they're gone. My world has been scorched clean of all life. Everyone I've ever known is dead now, a smoldering skeleton buried in red sand. She...Ritz was the last one. I've never felt so alone as I do right now, looking up at these star."
"We will bring her back, my friend," Ivan said. "I can assure you of that."
Marche sighed as his eyelids slowly closed and he drifted off into sweet unconsciousness.
"Wake up," Ivan whispered to Marche, shaking him slightly. The Soulvetar bolted up and almost cried out in shock, but Ivan wrapped his hand around his mouth. "Don't say anything. We are being watched."
"By who?" Marche said as Ivan removed his hand.
"I don't know. But I sense immediate danger from all directions," Ivan replied. Marche unsheathed his Paradox Blades and rose to his feet. As he did, he heard the unmistakable whistling of an arrow flying through the air. He jumped to the side and hugged the wall as the arrow whizzed past him, striking the ground where he was standing.
"Snipers," Marche said quietly. "What do they want?"
"They're probably sent by Archemis to stop us. He more than likely knows that we are headed towards Ghent's tower, and since he is not willing to destroy the one that has control over ultimate death, he's decided to stop us from reaching him," Ivan explained. He dropped to the ground as another arrow shot by the side of his face.
"How many do you think he sent after us?" Marche said.
"Just one," said a voice from above the canyon walls. In the bright starlight, a dozen Viera Snipers appeared above them, greatbows trained on the two warriors. "I am Mara the Phantom, number 9 of the Megalomancers," said on of the figures,
"What the hell is going on here?" Marche said.
"Mara the Phantom," Ivan said. "I heard stories about her when I was in the service of Archemis. She's a Sniper that somehow managed to master the art of the Black Chakra, allowing her to achieve supreme feats of illusion and mysticism. Such powers are usually only given to the most powerful Bangaa Monks." He raised the flat side of his blade up to block an arrow.
"So you're saying that this is an illusion?" Marche asked.
"Oh, I can assure you, it's quite real," said one of the Snipers. "As long as the spell remains in place, each one of these mirrors of myself is as real as I am." With that, the sound of a dozen bows being drawn was heard. "As are these arrows!"
In a second, a hellstorm of arrows fell from the sky towards Ivan and Marche. The Chocobo immediately sensed the danger and cried out with a shrill "WARK!" before bolting away. Marche shoved Ivan backwards and crossed his Paradox Blades. The familiar purple energy of the Prima Cross swirled around them. Marche grimaced and released the attack in a mighty sweep. As the arrows flew towards him, a brilliant wave of magical energy burst from the bubbling orb of power, knocking them back from their trajectories.
"Marche!" Ivan shouted as the Soulvetar panted. "If you provide a distraction, I can dispel her illusion!" He retreated towards Ritz's glass coffin.
"Got it!" Marche replied, regaining his strength from having to use the Prima Cross in a way in which it was not meant to be.
"I don't think so, traitor!" shouted all 12 of the Snipers. One of them turned and fired an arrow directly at the Black Monk. He tried to dive behind the cart before it struck him, but he was too slow. Without a second to lose, Marche lept towards the narrow canyon wall and propelled himself off it, right into the path of the arrow. He raised one of his blades and the steel head deflected of its flat side. Marche continued towards the opposite wall of the canyon, launching himself from that as well, finally landing atop the gorge, and short of breath. He was now facing down 12 very shocked and very angry Snipers.
"Die!" The shouted in unison and let fly with their arrows.
Meanwhile, with their enemies distracted, Ivan proceeded to inscribe a circle in the dirt around him and the coffin with his sword. When he completed it, he then drew several symbols within the circle, then sat down cross-legged. He reached into his black garb and removed a stack of white papers with symbols written in think black ink. He held the stack in his palms, whispered a word and the sutras burst from the pile, flying around the circle in a whirlwind before coming to very abrupt stops at regular intervals and just hovering. Ivan then proceeded to meditate.
Atop the ridge, Marche was frantically diving from side to side to dodge the flurry of arrows cutting through the air in his direction. He knew how to avoid being hit, but not when he was being attacked by a dozen enemies simultaneously and without any cover. He winced as one of the arrows cut through his upper thigh. He couldn't get close enough to hit them, and he wasn't going to hold off much longer.
Suddenly, the fierce salvo ceased. All 12 Snipers turned their heads and ran to the lip of the canyon.
"No!" they shouted as they saw what Ivan was attempting to do. The all drew and fired at the same time, the projectiles arching towards the monk with deadly accuracy. Before they could even come close to hitting him, the were suddenly deflected. It was as if they had struck a wall. The impacts caused the shield that Ivan had constructed around himself to shimmer.
"I control this zone now, Mara. Bid goodbye to your illusions!" he shouted and made a strange hand gesture. Instantly, 11 of the 12 Snipers cried out in horror as they burst into blue flames. Marche jumped back in shock at the sudden immolation. After a few seconds, the fires vanished, and 11 bows and quivers fell to the ground. The quivers revealed a piece of white paper similar to the ones Ivan used had been stuck on it.
Now the real Mara the Phantom stood alone.
"Very good, Monk. You took control and dispelled my Mirror Army. However, you're going to have to do better than that!" she said. The air around her shimmered and she let out a ghostly laugh before vanishing completely.
"Where'd she go?" Marche exclaimed. He soon received his answer.
His eyes shot open as an arrow pierced his right arm. He fell to his knees and quickly grabbed and pulled it out, his blood spattering on the rocky ground below. He looked around frantically, but could see nothing.
"You see, my young Soulvetar, the normal, run of the mill Conceal skill creates a bubble of invisibility around the user that is popped by any sort of physical attack. However, the Black Chakras have allowed me to create a much more....efficient bubble that isn't so easily broken," she said, her voice echoing through the night sky. To prove her point, two more arrows lanced towards Marche. He managed to avoid one of them, but the second pierced the armor on his right shoulder, breaking the skin but not going much farther. He pulled it out with a grunt.
"Ivan! This is not good!" he shouted down at the Monk below. He received no response.
"Ha! There is no dissolving this Chakra! Not even the infamous Black Monk can dispel it!" Mara gloated. Another two arrows shot out of thin air, grazing Marche's armor. It was all he could do just to avoid them.
He jumped back and thrust his arms to the side, and a pair of raging streams of fire shot out from his body. He twirled the around 360 degrees, scorching a circle of ground around himself. He had to have hit her with that attack.
"You missed," a voice whispered in his ear. Marche spun around in time to catch an arrow manually thrust into his already wounded shoulder. He stumbled back in pain, pulling in the wooden shaft from the wound. It was much deeper than the first, and copious amounts of blood poured over his lean black armor.
Ivan, where are you? he thought. He was growing weaker from fatigue and blood loss.
All of a sudden, he saw Mara standing in front of him with her bow drawn. It was only a flash of her figure, but it gave Marche enough time to gauge the trajectory of the attack and leap out of the way. The arrow flew past him by a more than comfortable margin.
Ivan's voice echoed through Marche's thoughts.
"I am in control of the zone. I can see the Phantom a split second before she attacks. I will guide your attacks with my thoughts," Ivan said in his meditative state. Marche nodded.
"A lucky guess, boy," Mara said. Marche saw another flash of the Viera before she launched an attack. He turned to the side as another arrow went past him.
"Not quite," Marche said. Another brief glimpse at his invisible attacker hit him and he immediately launched a Dante attack at her. The fire stream shot towards her position, and Marche shuddered for a second as a blood curdling scream echoed through the air. Slowly, Mara's body flickered back into view, the entire right side of her body horribly burned. She screamed in agony as she stumbled around aimlessly.
"Im...possible!" she groaned. "How did you...see through my Black Chakra?" Marche said nothing. With her right arm completely inoperable, she was unable to use her bow.
"The Monk!" she growled. "It was him! I'll kill him!" With that, she jumped down into the canyon below. Her Viera physique allowed her to take the fall without so much as a grunt. She drew an arrow from her quiver and removed a sutra from within her garment. Wrapping it around the shaft of the arrow, she dashed towards Ivan, his body still seemingly catatonic in his meditation. "I'll shatter your shield and pierce you right between the eyes!"
In a second, she confronted the previously unbreakable barrier and plunged the arrow into it.
"Haraiku!" she shouted as the sutra burst into blue flames and the shield vanished. Ivan's eye's snapped open to see the arrow coming right at his face. He couldn't react in time.
It stopped less than in inch from breaking the skin.
Mara's face was frozen into a look of distorted terror. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. A black aura surrounded her as a tiny orb of dark energy formed in her midsection. It began to grow, overtaking more and more of her sleek body by the second. Ivan watched intently as the Chaos Bomb swallowed her up, looking into her wide eyes as they were enveloped by the power of the singularity. Then it abruptly shrunk back into nothing but a tiny cloud of purple electricity.
Ivan looked up to see Marche's wounded body standing in front of him, his arm outstretched and the remnants of the Chaos Bomb still crackling around his open palm. He was breathing heavily, his wounds threatening to overtake him. He smiled faintly before falling to the ground. Ivan calmly stood up and walked over to the unconscious warrior, and began to treat his wounds.