Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of the Abyss.
Chapter 39
Undineday, Gnome-Decan 55, ND2019 – 11:20am local time (Zao Ruins)
The first thought that came to Natalia's mind was, How can I possibly cast Recover on a hundred people at once?!
No, she told herself sternly, not all at once, or it will be complete mayhem. Start with one person, and find out what happened. She walked carefully around the troop of petrified Kimlascan soldiers, not touching any of them, and stopped in front of General Cecille. "Cleanse the defiled," she chanted. "Recover!"
Gray stone transmuted to living color – red and black uniform, platinum-blond hair – and the General fell limply to her knees. Natalia caught her before she could collapse any further.
Cecille looked up at Natalia and gasped in horror. "Your Highness!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?!"
Natalia opened her mouth to reply, but the words eluded her. "Well..." she stalled, swallowing hard as she remembered that she had promised to come straight home from Chesedonia, without venturing into the desert. Of course, she had written a letter to her father explaining why she was going to Sheridan, but so much had happened since then...
Guy came to her rescue. "Long story, but we were looking for Gnome," he said, approaching Natalia and Cecille. "You okay, Jozette?"
"Yes..." Cecille replied. "Yes, I'm all right. But oh, Your Highness, you shouldn't have come here! Please, I beg you, you must leave at once!"
"Why?" Natalia asked, keeping her voice as level and calm as possible. "General, what happened? How did you and all of your troops become petrified?"
"Petrified?" Cecille asked, confused. She stood up carefully and turned to face the array of stone soldiers. Her jaw dropped.
Jade walked up to Natalia and Cecille, saying, "Before you explain any further, General Cecille, please put this on." He held out a Stone Charm.
Cecille flinched slightly, as though Jade had offered her a poisonous snake. Her light hazel eyes narrowed in anger, and her blond eyebrows drew down. "And why are you here, Colonel Curtiss?" she demanded.
Jade shrugged and replied nonchalantly, "Oh, don't mind me. I'm just tagging along to keep these rowdy youngsters out of mischief."
"Do not mock me, Colonel!" Cecille snapped. "And show some respect for Her Highness! 'Rowdy youngsters' – how dare you!"
"My apologies," Jade said, actually sounding slightly contrite for once. "Now then, General, if you please." He took another step toward Cecille, extending the Stone Charm to her. The General glared at him, but she accepted the charm and pinned it to her uniform.
Natalia softened her voice to a less commanding, more compassionate tone and repeated, "What happened here, General Cecille?"
Cecille turned to Natalia and saluted. "There was a monster, Your Highness," she reported. "The strangest-looking monster I've ever seen... and it could speak! It demanded that we let it out of the Zao Ruins. I asked what it meant, and it said that it was trapped here. So I asked, how was it trapped? It replied, I quote, 'How should I know?' and it mentioned something called a passage ring. Apparently the passage ring is what humans built to contain that—that thing! I told it, if humans built the passage ring to imprison it here, then it must be dangerous and I should not allow it to go free. It said, 'Then you'll just have to stay here with me!' I ordered my troops to attack, and... that's all I remember."
"Just as I suspected," Jade murmured.
Cecille immediately rounded on Jade. "What?! Malkuth knew there was a powerful monster down here?!"
Y'know, it's rude to call me a monster, said a petulant voice. Humans are the real monsters on this planet. Your technology made a mess of everything!
Florian's face lit up with joy, quite at odds with the situation. "Gnome!" he exclaimed.
Stalagmites erupted from the sandy ground, just in front of the doorway to the Sephiroth, and the sentience of earth appeared, saying, It's about time you got here, Innocent One. What took you so long, huh?
Natalia could see immediately why General Cecille had mistaken Gnome for a strange kind of monster. The sentience was covered in mottled brown and tan fur, with a badger-like head that was as big as all the rest of its stout body combined. Its beady black eyes, just below its flat brow, were approximately level with Natalia's shoulders. Unlike the other sentiences, it did not float in midair; instead, it stood leaning casually on a shiny golden shovel. Natalia could not identify its gender based on its appearance, but its voice sounded masculine, albeit rather whiny. She was reminded of what Luke had sounded like prior to last year's journey, and she would have smiled in amusement at the memory, but the humor was quickly drowned out by a wave of sorrow. Both of the Luke fon Fabres she had once known were gone now: one dead, the other profoundly changed. Luke, Natalia wondered, when will you come home? Please, you promised you would come home...
I've been tryin' to bust outta this place for months, Gnome complained, interrupting Natalia's reminiscing. That damned passage ring is holding me here so I can't reach the fon belt. Seriously, why did you humans have to screw up my Sephiroth with your fancy-schmancy fontech? As if your war machines that caused the miasma weren't bad enough!
Everyone seemed to be taken aback by Gnome's demeanor. Florian looked astounded, Tear and Anise were staring wide-eyed, Guy looked offended at the sentience's poor opinion of his beloved fontech, Jade was as unreadable as ever, and General Cecille was still seething with outrage. Natalia felt uneasy. Gnome is even more upset than Celsius, she thought. And Celsius refused to make a pact with Florian. Will Gnome refuse, too?
And then you had the nerve to blame the miasma on me! Gnome went on ranting. 'Poison blight that seeps up from Gnome's domain,' you call it. Can't you morons take responsibility for your own stupid actions?
Florian drew a deep breath and stepped forward to stand eye-to-eye with Gnome. "Taking responsibility is what we've come here to do," he said. "Gnome, we're going to find a way to stop the passage ring from interfering with your fonons. Colonel Jade has some ideas already, but..." he trailed off uncertainly as Gnome's irritated expression intensified.
Jade nodded. "Yes. I've developed a few hypotheses about how to eliminate the interference. However, a closer examination of the passage ring will be necessary. Might we ask you to let us through?"
No way! Gnome exclaimed, straightening up and flipping his shovel from vertical to horizontal, gripping it like a weapon. I'm not going to let y'all muck with my Sephiroth more than your idiot ancestors already did. You'll just make it worse!
Anise put her fists on her hips and said, "Okay, if you're not gonna be polite, we don't have to be polite either. Now move your furry butt, or we'll move it for you!"
KNOW YOUR PLACE, HUMAN! GROUND DASHER!
A line of jagged rocks burst from the ground underneath Anise, throwing her into the air. "Aaaaahhhhh!" she shrieked.
"Anise!" cried Florian, turning away from Gnome.
Jade, with his exceptionally fast reflexes, leapt toward Anise and caught her as she fell. Setting her carefully back on her feet, he murmured to her, "Are you all right, Anise?"
"Yeah..." Anise said shakily, seeming not to notice that she was covered with bleeding scratches from the flying gravel generated by Gnome's arte. "Colonel...thanks."
"O healing power..." Tear chanted. "First Aid!" The scratches and bruises all over Anise's body disappeared.
Grrr... damn you people! Gnome snarled, crouching and preparing to attack. You, your fontech, your healing artes, and especially your Stone Charms! I'd petrify you all if I could! Every last single one of you on this planet!
"Gnome, please listen," Florian said desperately, turning to face Gnome again and clasping his hands together. "We can help you. Please, let us through!"
No! Stay away from my Sephiroth! Get the hell outta here, and never return! And don't ask me about making any pacts, either!
"Gnome—!" Florian persisted, but Jade interrupted him.
"Everyone, would you mind standing back?" said Jade, his voice vibrating with anger.
"Colonel?" Natalia asked warily.
"I've had enough of this nonsense," Jade snapped, and began casting. "I, who stand in the full light of the heavens—"
What do you think you're doing? Gnome demanded.
"—command thee, who opens the gates of Hell. Come forth, divine lightning!" A giant glyph formed beneath Gnome, and four pillars of violet light shot upward from it. Natalia, Cecille, Florian, Anise, Tear, and Guy hastily backed away as the four pillars of light joined into one pillar high overhead, and three more glyphs formed around it, parallel to the glyph on the ground. A maelstrom of violet light swirled above the three glyphs, building in strength.
Hah! Gnome scoffed. You seriously think you can hurt me with mere fonic artes?
"This ends now! INDIGNATION!"
What the—? Gnome looked up just as an enormous blast of lightning descended, striking the sentience with a deafening CRACK! Natalia jumped, startled less by the noise than by the overwhelming power of Jade's arte. Beside her, General Cecille squeaked in fright, cringing.
AAAUUuuugghhhhh...! Gnome's scream of pain faded to a faint echo as he vanished in a rapidly-expanding cloud of Second Fonons, leaving no trace.
"Holy—!" Guy began to swear vehemently, but he managed to regain control and cut himself off. "Er... sorry," he apologized, turning bright red with embarrassment.
Florian, Anise, and Tear all giggled – whether at Guy or as a result of adrenaline aftershock, Natalia wasn't sure. She suppressed her own urge to laugh and took a few deep breaths to regain her equilibrium.
Jade tucked his hands into his pockets and turned to face the group. "Shall we?" he asked, as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
"Colonel...you're...crazy," Anise huffed, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Um...uh..." Florian stammered. "A-Aren't you afraid that Gnome will be mad at you, Colonel Jade?"
"Oh, I'm certain of it," Jade replied, still irate. "I, however, am thoroughly fed up with his attitude." Adjusting his glasses, he added, "My apologies for startling you all."
Guy laughed briefly. "Ha ha! Sure, Jade. Next time you lose your temper, I guess you'll warn us in advance, huh?"
Much to Natalia's surprise, Jade's only response was a brief, rueful smile instead of his usual smirk. He was embarrassed, Natalia realized. It was very rare for Jade to lose control of his emotions, especially twice in one day, and Natalia wondered what had set him off. Perhaps it had been Gnome's attack on Anise. Of all their companions, Anise had the closest friendship with Jade. An awkward bond of sorts, Jade had once called it.
"Hey..." Anise said, looking around.
Natalia glanced around, too. It took her a moment to notice what Anise had seen: slowly, a few at a time, golden sparkles were filling the air, drawn to the spot where Gnome had been.
"Second Fonons! Gnome is re-forming!" Florian exclaimed.
"To the passage ring! Quickly!" Jade shouted. He sprinted toward the doorway to the Sephiroth.
As Florian, Anise, Tear, and Guy began running after Jade, Natalia seized General Cecille's wrist. "General Cecille, come with us!" she commanded.
"Y-Yes, Your Highness!" Cecille gasped as Natalia pulled her along.