I would like to thank Kyanos and Xmaster for their reviews. I hope the last chapter wasn't too confusing or boring for everyone. Well, let me stop babbling now.
Chapter 22: Clash of the Titans
After Yunalesca disappeared, the group continued their journey up Mount Gagazet in silence. They traveled past the Fayth Wall, where the now-empty statues of the people of Zanarkand still stood, and they, along with the swarms of corrupted pyreflies, made for some rather eerie scenery. Ria stared at the fayth-filled cliff with sad curiosity and quietly asked, "What could have been so bad that all these people would do this to themselves?"
"A thousand years ago, Bevelle and Zanarkand were engaged in a brutal war," Auron replied, his voice heavy with sorrow. "Zanarkand had the summoners, but Bevelle had machina to do their fighting for them, so it was only a matter of time before they won the war. Knowing that their city was lost, the people of Zanarkand came out here and became fayth, so that as long as they dreamed, the memory of their lost city would survive. Now they're all gone, though, and their dream vanished with them."
They walked up the path a little while longer and finally arrived at the entrance to the caves. Rikku stared up at the dark maw of the cave and shivered. "Zanarkand is on the other side, you know?"
"Yeah, and we don't really know what's going to be waiting for us when we get there," Wakka sighed. "Damn Seymour! What does he think he's doing?"
No one answered that, and the group entered the cave, where Bob literally bounced along as if he didn't have a care in the world. "Bob, why are you so happy?" Ria asked, watching the Tonberry's antics with some amusement.
"It feels like home to me," he told her, "All Tonberries like caves, so we are perfectly happy in one, even if we're a million miles away from home."
A little while later, Bob finally stopped his happy bouncing and froze in his tracks. "Hey, what's the matter with you?" Rikku grumbled when she tripped over the little fiend.
He didn't answer her, so the thief turned and saw what he was staring at. A huge swarm of jelly-like creatures in every color of the rainbow slithered toward the group. "It looks like…living Jell-o," Ria said gaping at the swarm with astonishment.
They all managed to get out of the way before the swarm oozed by, and Auron replied, "Those were Flans. They use a lot of magic, but they're not particularly intelligent."
"They looked like they were afraid of something, ya?" Wakka said, slightly bewildered by what he'd just witnessed, "But what could that many Flans possibly be afraid of?"
"Don't you feel it?" Bob asked, trembling and staring up the path.
"What are you talking about? Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" the blitz captain eyed the little fiend warily.
Suddenly, a deafening roar rang out through the cavern, sending several stalactites crashing to the floor in the process. "I think we're about to find out what scared all those Flans away!" Ria shouted, flattening herself against the wall.
Another roar rang out in response to the first one, and a pair of enormous fiends appeared. The first one looked like a merging of a lion, a bull, and a wolf, only on a colossal scale. It had ghostly turquoise fur, with a bristling white mane streaming down its back. The beast's long ebony horns gleamed in the twilight gloom of the cavern as it roared at its opponent. The other fiend vaguely resembled a centaur, but was dragonish in appearance. It was even larger than the first monster, and was covered in silver and royal blue armor. Its eyes blazed a fiery scarlet as its tail lashed about in fury.
"This is insane!" Rikku shrieked as the two monsters continued to bellow at one another. "Those two shouldn't be here!"
"What the hell are they?" Ria demanded.
"The one with the long horns is the King Behemoth, and the one with all the armor is Omega," Bob told her, a note of panic creeping into his voice. "They are some of the strongest fiends in Spira, but I could have sworn that both of them had already been destroyed."
"Well, they look pretty alive to me!" the sorceress retorted as the fiends charged one another.
"Seymour must have brought them back when he broke the boundaries between Earth and Spira," Auron thought aloud, his face brooding. "But whether it was intentional or by accident, I cannot say."
Omega and the King Behemoth battled with reckless abandon, and the entire mountain shook with their struggles. Both fiends attacked, using their brute strength as well as powerful magic in their attempts to gain the upper hand. Dark, viscous blood poured out of the terrible wounds the monsters inflicted on each other, and finally the two grappled like a couple of high school wrestlers.
"What should we do?" Wakka groaned in frustration.
"We could try to fight our way past them," Rikku suggested.
"What, and have the both of them after us? I don't think so," the blitzball player shook his head at her.
"Well, you think of something!" the thief yelled.
The battle ended abruptly when Omega drove one of his clawed hands into Behemoth's stomach and yanked out several yards of his guts. However, the slain fiend did not fall, but reared up on his hind legs and let out a long, booming howl. Auron went wide-eyed for a moment when he realized what was about to happen, but he quickly composed himself and shouted, "RUN!"
Ria scooped up Bob, and she, Rikku, and Wakka followed the swordsman's orders. As they ran, the King Behemoth continued to howl and his mane glowed a brilliant emerald green. Finally, the noise broke off when the fiend's body exploded and the now-released Ultima spell caught Omega full in the face. The group continued to run as fast as they could, as the leaf-colored wave of energy raged unhindered through the cavern. They barely managed to get outside when the ceiling collapsed behind them.
The mountainside shook for several more minutes, and finally subsided. When the dust settled, everyone saw that the entrance to the cave was almost completely blocked by fallen debris. Rikku nimbly clambered up the pile of rubble and peeked through the small hole that remained near the top. "It's too dark for me to see anything in there, but I don't think that we'll be going that way for a while," the thief announced, leaping off the pile with the grace of a gymnast.
"So we're stuck up here?" Wakka demanded.
"You say that like it's a bad thing, Pac-Man," Ria told the big man. "We ARE on the other side of the caves now, and we have a lot more important things to worry about besides being stuck on top of a mountain."
"You enjoy being right, don't you?" he asked, warily watching her feet.
The sorceress smiled and patted him on the cheek. "Don't worry Wakka; we all win sometimes. Hell, someday it might even be your turn, ya?"
The blitzball player gaped at her with astonishment, and she laughed and walked away. "She's…not quite right…is she?" he asked Bob.
"I don't know," the little fiend shrugged. "I don't really understand you humans anyway, so I just learned to go along with everything. Believe me; it's much safer that way."
"Tell me about it," he muttered, remembering that kick.
The five of them left the cave behind, and found themselves staring at the world from the summit of the mountain. Below them lay the vast ruins of an ancient city, where no one lived for a thousand years. Even from such a long distance, the group could see the gathering swarms of corrupted pyreflies flitting through the wreckage. Auron stared out at the ruins for a long moment, and finally said, "There it is, Ria. That is Zanarkand: the city of the dead."
Well, everyone, it's getting close to that big moment. That's right; the final battle is just around the corner. What's going to happen, you ask? Now you know I can't tell you that without giving anything away. You'll just have to read and find out. (Grins evilly) Anyway, I hope everyone liked the battle between King Behemoth and Omega Weapon. They both gave me a bit of trouble in FFX, so I decided to let them beat the hell out of each other for a change. I couldn't remember whether KB used Ultima or Meteor when he died, so I just picked one at random. Okay, everyone: review and keep on reading.