Chapter 16: The Castle part 1
The fourth dimension, it's been theorized that the fourth dimension was time and space. During time compression, past present and future become compressed in to one, not ness early proving the fourth dimension theory but making it arguably true. When Time compression is started, a 'gate' to the fourth dimension is opened, all places through out time become one 'space' that can be moved through freely. Not just to move through out time, but to move from one location to another freely, a teleportation like attribute. If time was questionably the forth dimension, complete movement freedom was most definitely it. You could go a million miles with out using time at all.
The Fourth dimension is also the Fifth dimension in an essence, when you move from one place to another with out using time. It's world beyond time, the Fifth dimension, or the Fourth since they were the same.
(Where did you learn all of that?) Carbuncle asked.
(Picked it up.) Bahamut told him.
'This place creepy, very creepy.' Zell shuttered, looking at the large gates standing before him. Who could build something like this?
Squall seemed apprehensive in choosing his team at first, but he decide to go with Zell and Irvine
Upon stepping past the front door he knew something was wrong. Squall stood there for a moment, at lest a whole minute of being absolutely unmoving as the stared at the elegantly designed main hall. He then quickly backed out. "What's wrong Squall?" Irvine asked.
(This place must have a GF seal) Ifrit told him.
When Squall walked through those doors, it was like a part of his mind was sucked out, a part of himself. It was strange, and creepy, kinda cold with out Ifrit's warmth. This was gonna be hard.
"There is a seal in there, not just on GF, but on everything. My inventory even stopped working." Squall warned them, Zell and Irvine gave each other a sideways glance toward each other.
'What did it feel like?' Squall asked, wondering if it had been as odd for Ifrit as it was for him.
(It was, strange.. like I was forced out of the Junction.)
'Is there anyway around the seal?'
(No not from here, you'll have to find the source from the inside.)
'Damnit….'
(Squall….)
'Yes?'
Ifrit paused for a moment, for the first time Ifrit had actually been reluctant about something (……….Hurry.) One word that spoke volumes to Squall, they it had been meant something that he just wasn't ready to face yet. Maybe after he broke the seal… Yeah definitely then………
'I'll do my best.' Taking a deep breath, Squall walked into the door. Feeling the cold aloneness wash over him Squall silently cursed to himself, he was ready to get this over with.
They found themselves in a large hall with a grand stairwell right in front of them. At the top of the stairs a large monster stood and waited, watching them silently.
"What do you think it is?" Irvine opened the chamber of his shotgun, loading some ammo in side before flipping it shut.
"Why don't you go ask it?" Squall uttered sarcastically.
Irvine looked at him with narrowed eyes, "You know what, I think I'll do that." Irvine gave one last glaring look to Squall before running up the stairs.
Zell, seeing the flaw in that move, tried to stop him but it was too late. "Hey Irvine…….you think that's a good idea?" Zell asked, scratching his head.
Irvine stopped at the head of the steps, calling back "Were about to find out aren't we?" before turning face to face with the large four-legged monster Spinxara.
It looked at him with a strait face. "Fight me for they Sealed Powers." Or something of that nature.
"Looks like our best bet." Irvine called back in a matter of factly tone, prompting Squall and Zell to join him
"How fast can we take this thing out?" Zell wondered, tightening his gloves.
"Let's find out." Squall lifted his gunblade, watching the once statue like monster come to life.
The four legged creature jumped at Squall, but he moved to the side against the railing, avoiding the attack, then bringing down his gunblade in to the side of it's head. The beast like mask that was on it's face fell off, reveling a more human like one. It was creepy, very strange.
Irvine fired a round of shots in to the monster, causing it howl and stumble back towards the double glass doors behind it. Zell finished it off with a strong punch to the side of the head and an uppercut to the chin. Spinxara tried to lash out, but everyone moved out of the way, one final kick to the back of the head, caused it to ended up tumbling down the stairs.
"Easy, see." Irvine sliding down the railing with his gun on his shoulder, landing in front of the defeated monster. It's eyes were closed and it's body was unmoving with out breath, but it's mouth still talked.
"Choice thy seal."
"I guess it's wants us to break one of them." Irvine relayed back, his eyes indicating he didn't know anything.
"Break the GF Seal." Squall chose firmly and surely with out hesitation or a second thought. With Irvine relaying the choice the monster faded in a cloud of blue smoke and a loud snapping sound. As soon as it cleared, Squall could feel his Junction returning.
'Ifrit? Are you here?' Squall asked.
(Yes…I'm here.)
'Good to have you back.' Squall sighed, amazed that he actually said that.
(Good to be back….)
'Ifrit, we'
(Later.)
Squall opened the doors in front of him, finding a balcony over looking a dim main hall with a broken railing leading to a large chandler. On the other side was another balcony and a door leading outside. The only way to the door was across the chandler in front of them since the stairs were broken by some manner of falling pillars, and it looked sturdy enough.
"This is nothing." Zell confidently went first, leading the way across the steel bridge followed by his two teammates. Halfway across began to shake, and with another step it suddenly dropped in a dizzying fall towards the ground.
"Whooaa!" Irvine dived outward, grabbing on to the edge of the adjacent balcony they'd been trying to reach just in time before he was taken down with his two teammates, while Squall and Zell ended up falling to the next floor. "Oh man..." Irvine pulled his elbows on to the edge of the broken railing and pushed himself up.
Squall jumped off the plunging chandelier, landing on his feet while Zell fell off face first, dropping to the ground on his stomach.
"Ow….." He groaned loudly, climbing to his knees and rubbing his head where he sure a mark would be left behind.
"You guys alright down there?" Irvine called, leaning over the edge to get a better view.
"Fine." Squall gave him an agitated answer, obviously frustrated. His frustration quickly left his concern when he heard a muffled roar from bellow him. 'There's something under us?' Just ahead of him was a hatch, leading to the wine cellar. 'It's probably another monster with a seal.' Squall thought.
"You heard that right? We're going to go check it out." Squall shouted up to Irvine, glancing over to Zell to make sure he was alright.
"I'll go take a quick look around, see what I find." Irvine, seeing that they were ok, dusted himself off and headed to the door behind him.
! - !- !
He found himself outside, on a balcony looking out over the court yard. But more importantly, a large monster floated right in front of him, seemingly made completely out of large, clear crystals. He flinched at the sight. "What the hell is that!"
"Fight me for your sealed powers."
"Oh man………" Irvine knew it would probably be hard with out using some type of magic, just physical attack. This monster, Krystal, had a strategy of basically one thing. To counter every single attack, and counters rarely missed.
Irvine fired a well placed shot dead center in to the monster rough enough to knock off a few shards of it's body, and as expected it countered, with Flare. Irvine was surrounded by a burning red energy that exploded with enough force to propagate in to a shock wave. Being thrown back into the door, he was starting to have second thoughts about this fight. "I think I'm going to need some help with this one."
In a second, the two GF Brothers appeared, Sacred to the left, and Minataur to the right. "That'll work." Irvine pushed himself all of the door with a small thanks to his GFs. That's when he noticed that the monster was floating, the brothers were earth GFs "You guys sure your………Right for this job?"
Minataur nodded with audible snort, tightening his strong grip around the sledge hammer. "We can take out something like this, easy." Sacred said, he surprisingly strong for his small size.
Irvine shrugged. "Alright, go ahead." there was no harm in letting them try, pointing out the unfair advantage the monster had. Krystal could use magic, they couldn't, plus they had no way of healing themselves. But the brothers were still strong, strong enough so to take this thing down.
The larger Minataur pulled back the large hammer to his side, sending it smashing in to the crystal monster. Krystal was thrown roughly to the side, smashing through the balcony's railing and flying off. As soon as it's body dropped out of site, a much larger flare spell came, enough to hit all three of them at once and shatter anything frail around.
Irvine started to notice that the two GF around him had a larger advantage then the monster. While on the ground, they basically invulnerable, useful, very useful. "Hn. I guess you boys can handle it."
The monster floated back up in to view, waiting for the next attack just beyond the edge. Irvine cocked his gun, firing another round of shotgun ammo that burst and scattered threw out Krystal's body. This time it didn't counter though, must it must have been planning something.
Sacred attack next, pulling the over sized hammer over his shoulder and charging with the strength of at lest a hundred humans. He pulled the hammer from his shoulder jumped in to the air and sent it crashing down on to the large monster by the head. Irvine managed to fire a quick shot before it was sent smashing through the ground, down to the level under them in a rain of falling shards.
Minataur came after it, jumping in to the hole and slamming his own weapon on to the fallen monster. The blow was so hard that it sent crack shooting out of the spot, smashing it to thousands of pieces. Even though it's body was smashed and scattered around the court yard, it still manned to stay alive.
"Unseal Magic!"
! - ! - !
Squall and Zell cautiously crept down the spiraling staircase, moving past the stacked barrels of wine neatly placed in stacks. At the bottom of the stairway, they came unexpectedly face to face with a large, flying monster. It had a large yellow, needled beak with two more on each one of it's back winds outstretched to it's side. Appropriately named Tri-point.
"USING ELEMENTAL ATTACKS, WHATEVER I DON'T USE, I DON'T LIKE"
It yelled as soon as the battle started.
"Uh….. Thanks for telling us…your weakness?" Zell said rubbing his head a little, this couldn't be a good thing could it?.
The Tri-point shook itself a little, casting a thunder spell on Zell and Squall. The two of them were knocked up a few steps by the unusually strong spell, right where they begin to curve, seeing that they couldn't keep balance on the structure, they pushed past Tri-point and on to the relatively open stone floor.
Squall retaliated with a water spell thinking it was the best course of action seeing as how it's body was sparking, surrounding the three pronged beast with a bubble water. It basically ended up electrocuting itself, causing more damage then the shifting water pressure.
It came back with Firaga, creating a large explosion that covered Squall in flames.
"It's not using thunder anymore..." Noticing that the monster was so hot the air around it began to distort, Zell used Thundaga, striking it with a thick pillar of lighting that streamed from the ceiling, demolishing some of the stone covered floor under enroot to the ground. It was working.
Zell cast double on himself fast enough to get in another similar spell on Squall. Squall used this to cast Reflect him and Zell, just in time for Tri-point to cast Fiargea, which was reflected back on it with no damage done at all.
Squall used double to cast two Holy spells on to himself and Zell, which in turn were reflected on to Tri-point becoming even more powerful by the bounced backed effect, powerful enough to overlap, so both spells cast at once.
A string of white orbs surrounded Tri-point vertically, while another set of them surrounded it horizontally. Both pulling in thick rays of holy light from all sides until it all blended together in a blinding flash.
Tri-point had just taken a lot of damage, it was starting to get desperate. So, it cast scan on Squall to study him 'Why would it do that?' Squall thought to himself.
(It's determining your strength, maybe to see if it's the next attack can work….)
Tri-point took off, flying over them in a blur, crashing through the walls behind them and soaring outside. "Huh? Is it running?" Zell turned back questioningly, looking out of the large hole it had created.
(Zell! MOVE!) Carbuncle shouted franticly, and apparently Ifrit did the same for Squall. Both of them dived to the side as Tri-point rushed past them from behind them at deadly speed and burst of electrocuted wind, narrowly missing the two though able to knock a few barrels out of place and in to the gaping hole. Very close.
"We can take it down with one good attack." Squall told Zell, returning to his previous spot before the monster.
"Got it." Zell thrust his hand forward, casting one last Flare spell, creating a large explosion of strong red energy. Zell covered his eyes with his arms as a strong shockwave swept over them.
Another explosion erupted from the creature from the double in effect, and thick smoke rose from it. "Unlock Revival!" Squall shouted, just as it crashed to the ground, erupting in to flames with a loud crash.
! - ! - !
"This place is seriously creepy." Seiphie looking at the old surroundings, reasoning that they were long neglected by the thick cloud of dust and the spider webs, not to mention all the monsters. Seiphie, Rinoa and Quistis had taken the stairs in the main hall, choosing the right path on the balcony and ended up in a Library full of books and paintings. And there also was a large clock imprinted on the ground.
The largest picture laying in front of the clock had a title, in fact it was the only one they couldn't read, it was too faint and warn. But after looking at every other picture, and the clock on the ground that had 3 hands indicating which pictures to look at….
"Why! What possible reason could Ultimecia have for making something this complicated? She doing this on purpose." Rinoa grumbled indicating the large puzzle they had to go through find out the name of this painting. Apparently, the name is a key to unlock a seal, which as the clock. Quistis had found this out by looking at a book, a diary really, the only one off the shelve in an obvious place.
"She trying to throw us off, she knows we're here." Seiphie accused, looking at the large painting standing on the central wall of the room.
"She probably knew we were coming, that's why everything is sealed. The only way to get the seals off is to beat her monsters. She wants to wear us down, or just kill us off before we get to her." Quistis explained her.
"That's not smart, all we have to do his beat the monsters, go take a nap and come back. It's not like she's going anywhere, If she leaves, she leaves Junction machine Ellone. Which we could just smash." Rinoa said, thinking before every sentence.
"If we leave, the seals will be back up by the time we return. And then she'll know how strong we are, and have better monsters guarding them, plus Time compression has already started, it doesn't really matter of she leaves the machine now. It's best if we try to get this over with quickly before she has a chance to do that, we're running out of time anyway." Quistis said, making sense actually.
"Alright, let's get this over with……The name of the painting is…." Rinoa started, looking around to see if anything would try to stop her. "VIVIDARIUM ET INTERVIGILIUM ET VIATOR." she shouted, unleashing the seal on the clock. First there was only the sound of wind, then nothing.
"VIVIDARIUM ET INTERVIGILIUM ET VIATOR………In the Garden, sleeps a messenger? What could that mean." Quistis folded her arms, staring down at the clock.
"Looks like there's no monster here, let's go." Seiphie said turning around. "That was a big waste of time!"
Apparently there was a monster here, and those words really did unleashed it. It dropped down from the ceiling, floating just above the clock imprint, which was now glowing.
"Oh crap………" Seiphie, nearly started by it, pulled her nu-chucks out, facing the large golden monster with thick, strong arms, and no legs, just a point where they should have been. It was called Trauma, and it was a machine.
Quistis used a scan spell, it was weak against wind.
"Alright! Let's see what you got! Meltdown!" Seiphie cast, holding both hands extended outward with her weapon clinched tightly between them. A large, hollow purple beam from her hands, striking the machine and covering most of it's torso.
It body shifted hue to purple under meltdown's effect, it's defense was gone. Leaving a perfect opening, Rinoa cast triple on Quistis, who made good use of it, casting three Tornado spells. Winds ripped around the monster, lifting it higher and tarring at it before throwing it back to the ground.
Two more of those tore through the machine before it finally retaliated with Pulse Canon. Large white beams shot in to the air, raining down on all three of them with tremendous force. An explosion erupted from the impact zone, throwing all three of them out of the created flames and colliding in to the wall.
"Ow!……." Seiphie wined, sliding down the wall where an imprint had been created and landing weakly on her feet. Rinoa began to summon, while Quistis used a Cureaga spell on them under the triple effect, healing most of the damage from the last attack.
The three girls faded out of reality, and the towering pandemonium appeared in their place, much larger then Trauma and nearly breaking out of the library's high ceiling. Taking in a deep breath the wind GF drew Trauma in to it's body with a vortex of wind. Holding the machine in a large sack with high wind pressure, then finally blowing it out in hurricane force winds that pulled the machine apart in to scrap metal.
When Pandemonium was done, there was hardly anything left of the monster, well, in one piece anyway. "Unseal Limit Breaks!" Seiphie shouted with excitement. A black smoke rose from the remains, breaking the seal of choice.
Now they had broken all of the seals that were really key to survival in a place like this, all they needed was draw and item. Anything else was unimportant.
"Let's go find the others."
