Chapter 17: The Castle part 2
"This place is really strange, I mean, who makes all of this stuff?" Irvine wondered, he, Squall and Zell were in the basement, right in front of a door to a prison cell.
Squall carefully placed his hand on the wooden door and slowly pushed it open, though all attempts to be discrete were shattered by a loud creak illuminating from the hinges. He peeked in before entering, making sure there was nothing waiting for him before going in. Finding no threat, he entered the small round cell. Laying on the ground in front of him was an old corpse that was half rotted, it smelled as much, in it's hand was a key.
Squall knelt down and pulled the key from the dead body, noting it had a surprisingly tight grip. But before he could get back on his feet, the ground started shaking. "What? What's happening?"
"Fight me for thy sealed powers."
Zell and Irvine ran in to the cell, looking around for the source of the voice. "Squall, What was that?" Irvine asked.
"I don't know."
It made itself known when something large and red unearthed itself from the ground. It was like an Iron Giant, but it's armor was burgundy red with a sharper sword, and by the looks of it a lot more powerful.
"Oh man, look at that thing!" Zell wasn't to anxious to fight it, he wasn't sure he could even hurt it...so instead he took the safer move and summoned. Irvine was ready though, regarding it just like every other Iron Giant he'd defeated in the past. He fired the shot gun at the machine's head, all the bullets just ricocheted off, it did leave a dent though.
"GWahaHA! PHysical attackS? USeleSS!" The Red Giant laughed deeply in an odd voice, lifting it's large sword and swiping it across all three of them, knocking them off there feet with it's shear power.
"Ok, we need a different strategy." Zell groaned, pulling himself up from the ground, Bahamut had absorbed the damage for him though Squall and Irvine were left with bloody gash across their left side and torso. Right after he spoke all three of them faded away, and Bahamut dropped from the ceiling. A burst of smaller shots stuck and erupted on to the armor, leaving it scorched as smoldering as Bahamut drew in a deep breath and fired a chrome Mega Flare. The beam slammed down on to the heavy armor with an oppressive forced, enough to leave a crater in the ground and send large cracks shooting through the concrete.
The attack left the machine smoking profusely in thick black clouds, but relatively undamaged. It's armor was too strong, the outer layers forged of diamonds, along with the last inner layer, both surrounding steel.
"THaT Gf was A WaStE Of TimE!" The Red giant yelled.
(Did he just call me a waste of time……) Bahamut mumbled with a growl.
'Calm Down.' Zell told him, seeing that Bahamut had done more damage than the Machine led them to believe, though not nearly enough.
Squall studied the large machine silently, he didn't think magic would work to well on something this well protected. not elementals anyway. So he tried something different. "Demi!" Squall thrust his hand forward, unleashing a wave dark, oppressive energy over the Machine. It was enough to force it to it's knees for the spell's duration.
"Urgh! N-NO more DEMI, pleaSE...!"
(Bingo, we have our weakness.) Carbuncle laughing at the monster's reaction, the voice and the phrase together were just plain funny to him.
The giant held his head as if trying to shake it off, then lifted the large sword with one hand and brought it down on Squall, Squall dived to the side, wincing as the blade stuck his shoulder now streaming with blood. Zell followed Squall's example and cast Demi, bringing another wave of dark energy over the Red Giant.
"If we keep this up, this fight will be over in no time." Irvine cast tipple on Squall, allowing him to cast three Demi spells in concession on the machine and father shorten the duration of the fight. With three of the spells bearing down on the armor it couldn't hold on to the sword, causing the blade to slip out of the Giant's hand and fly behind the humans, out of it's reach.
"DaMn HuMans!" Even with out the weapon it was still strong, proving that by just jumping in to the air and causing an earthquake on it's short landing. The ground bucked up wildly, streaks of fractures dividing the land allowing it to come up in jagged sectors to father rattle them.
"Man that hurt!" Zell cast Demi again though this time more as retaliation, the oppressive forced causing it to stumble in to the wall while trying not to fall. With an angry yell ran towards them with loud, earth shaking steps, raising it's large fist and punching down on Irvine. He was smashed painfully into the ground, knocking more then the wind out of him.
"Son of" Irvine leaned on to his gun and pushed himself on to his feet with a light weakness, countering with another Demi spell.
One last spell from Squall was enough to send the Giant crashing to it's knees and falling face first in to the ground, rattling the cell. After a moment of waiting idle, it was clear that it wasn't getting back up
"Unseal Items."
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Rinoa, Quistis, and Seiphie wandered around the maze like halls of Ultimecia's castle for what seemed like hours. Completely lost, and dead tired. But the mindless wondering did have some rewards, they did find a key that looked very promising. Of course, any key labeled Treasure Vault Key was a promising one.
"I wonder what's in it." Rinoa rested her hands together behind her back, looking up with wondering eyes, leading the way down a dark hallway to the Treasure Vault room. They knew where it was because they had passed it so many times. About 20 actually.
"Maybe it's Gil, you could always use more gil." Seiphie proposed excitedly.
"It could be gold." Rinoa commented,
"Or silver." Seiphie followed. "Or both."
"Well I really don't care what's in it, I just want to get out of here." Quistis sighed tiredly, adjusting her glasses with a small push at the rims with her finger.
"I still want to know, it could lead to Ultimecia………" Rinoa told her, still trying to think of a possible way it could. But anything could happen in this place, she wouldn't be surprised if it did, she wouldn't be if it did happy either.
"I hope it doesn't, we're all separated." Quistis said, becoming a little more apprehensive about going in side the vault now that Rinoa had mentioned it.
Seeing what chain of thought she had caused, Rinoa attempted to ease Quistis mind, though still nervous her self. "Don't worry, I'm sure Ultimecia wont be there, why would she?" Yeah, that sounded right, why would she be there?
"It could give us like a key or something that might help us get to her….?" Seiphie said optimistically. "Or an ambush, everyone loves treasure."
"What if it has Jewels in side?" Rinoa said in a dreamy type voice, just imaging what could be in a place like this, what couldn't be here?
Seiphie's face lit up at the thought, she would love to find a vault full of jewels. "What if it's something really strange from the future. Like something that could make Diamonds or something." Seiphie actually thought that that could be there, with good reason too.
Which actually brought up the question of machinery, that lead to a logical next thought. "What if Junction Machine Ellone is in there?" Quistis inquired, thinking out loud.
Seiphie let her hands rest behind her head, her eyes drifting over to the windows on the right wall they were passing by "I never thought of that, that seems like something you would want to keep in a vault. Especially with all the monsters running a round here. A ruby dragon could just smash the thing." Seiphie had seen some mean dragons around this place, she wasn't sure what the machine looked like but a dragon could smash any machine.
"What would you do if it was in there?" Rinoa asked curiously.
"Smash it, Definitely." Seiphie spoke surely with out hesitation. Both of them turned to Quistis with an expression that asked the same question, who thought about it carefully.
"I would………Go back in to the past and see what would cause a person to do all of this. Or better yet, I want to see Ultimecia's mother." Quistis corrected herself, getting agreeing reactions from Seiphie and Rinoa.
"You know, that's a good Idea, how did she grow up? Was she always this... evil? Or is she just crazy?" Rinoa pondered, coming to a stop at vault doors centered in the hall and retreating the key from her pocket. The doors were two regular wooden double doors. But upon opening it, it reviled thick steel reinforcements.
All of them waited anticipated as they got there first glimpse in-side the vault with entering light. It was round room with 4 coffins, and that was it...that was disappointing, a really big let down.
"I think she's just crazy. Who would keep coffins?" Seiphie said warily, her hands dropping slowly from her head with tension.
"What do you think is in there? It is a treasure vault, there maybe something inside?" Quistis said with clear uncertainty as not to get anyone's hopes up, laying her hand on one of the coffins. They looked to her to open it, and with a deep breath, she did. But she found nothing.
"Huh? Well...maybe this one." Rinoa tried the next, and found nothing also. Seiphie tried the one next to it but it wouldn't open. With three failed attempts Rinoa took one last look inside that lay against the right wall, it wasn't completely empty, a looming cloud of purple smoke was there.
Creepy.
As soon as Rinoa closed hers, Seiphie's came open on it's one, making the girl flinch and jump back "Whoa, that was weird." Seiphie said, carefully leaning forward to look in but found the same thing. Quistis closed hers and opened the last one next to Seiphie trying to find the cause of all of this. And to their surprise, all of them slid opened.
They heard a roar, and a monster appeared in front of them. It was large, and looked like a Behemoth, but it was white with blood red stripes across it's body in an almost pattern, that was the only difference.
"Well, At least we know what was in it……" Seiphie jumping back out of it's reach with a startled sound, this was really creepy.
"Fight me for thy sealed powers."
"So we really have a choice!" Rinoa shot back smartly.
"I am Catoblepas. What do you humans plan to do... Against the likes of me…………"
A different voice not belonging to the girls came from out of seemingly nowhere, replying to him. "Arrogant aren't we………"
Before anyone could ask any questions, Rinoa, Seiphie, and Quistis faded out of reality.
Something red fell from the sky, a cloth or cape. It fell flatly to the ground, then began twisting around as if caught in a strong upward draft, raising up and taking form. A tall man appeared, with white eyes and gray skin, more noticeably were the 4 swords that fell to the ground, one in front, one behind, and one to each side. All different.
It was Gilgamesh, and he picked up the sword that was in front of him. It just happened to be Odin's sword Zantesuken, Gilgamesh looked at the blade with small smirk, what unfortunate luck for his enemy.
Then he disappeared with the sword in a blur of amazing quickness, suddenly appearing behind Catoblepas with his back turned.
"Weakling!" Catoblepas came out of what appeared to be an attack with out even a scratch, turning around towards Gilgamesh who also turned towards the monster.
"Hn." Gilgamesh just held up the sword that now had blood smeared across the edge. Before another word could be spoken, the monster's body fell apart in to two pieces and faded away. Gilgamesh confidently made his exit.
"What just happened there?" Seiphie rubbed the back of her head, looking around as if something else would jump out at them.
Rinoa of course recognized the hooded figure that wasn't quite a GF, wondering what brought of the solicitation of his help. But then she'd have to ask why Odin used to help them. "I'm not even going to ask. Unseal Draw."
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The girls found there way back out in to the court yard, disappointed from the inclination of no treasure would be found. From there they entered a chapel like room with an organ and a huge gapping void. It looked as if it would suck someone in, but it didn't, nothing happened, even when they got close.
But there was a strange feeling that came when there were around it. Like they were being watched, like there was a strong presence there……….
From there they crossed the bridge and in to the clock tower, where they met up with Squall, Zell and Irvine.
"Hey guys, I hope you did as much as we had to." Seiphie said with a tired groan.
"Oh, we had had to do some things…….." Zell had a little bit of annoyment in his voice.
Squall looked around, it was an old looking bridge that spiraled around the tower walls and lead to the top of the tower like a staircase. Then he looked at his party, he knew that they were all heavy fatigued, all of the GF's included. They had been awake for two days strait through though no one had seemed to notice it.
Starting from when they broke Rinoa out of Esthar, the sun was setting when they entered the Lunatic Pandora. And spent hours wandering around and trying to break past the monsters and guards.
Then came the whole series of fight's between Seifer and Adel, It was about 1 in the morning when they actually went in to time compression and when Nida helped Laguna make his escape.
Actually, something strange was happening back then too.
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"Cho! Cho?" Nida searched the ship frantically, going through each and every room one by one with the help of Laguna and Ellone. They met up with each other at the hall connected the passenger area and the lift to the cockpit. "Did you two find anything!"
Ellone only shook her head disappointedly, Laguna doing the same. "Calm down, try and think about this." Laguna said "We're at 1500 feet, he couldn't have just disappeared."
Nida clinched his for head, "He did just disappear." He uttered with tense calmness, in fact he had disappeared. Faded away before their eyes, an hour of searching at 2 in the morning with the ship on auto pilot confirmed it.
"I'll keep looking." Ellone told Nida, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder before she left to continue her search.
Nida nodded passively, trying his best to remain calm. He was supposed to look after Cho! He wasn't supposed to let anything happen to him! That's what he promised when he got the Chocoboy to enroll in Balamb Garden. In a small, discrete part of Nida's mind that was completely sealed off to the rest of his brain, he was frantically panicking. But Nida was the one that always remained calm, he had to. "Damnit...Laguna?"
With a monetarily glimpse at the man, Nida had caught strange expression on Laguna's face, one that was quickly squashed when Laguna realized that Nida was looking his way. "What was that face? What did you think of?" Nida recognized that expression, he knew what it meant.
"It's nothing." Laguna said with a discarding wave of his hand.
"What?"
"Well...I was thinking, and I'm probably really really wrong about this, that maybe he was back on the Lunatic Pandora..."
Nida's eyes widened, he hadn't thought of that! With out another moment's thought Nida climbed on to the lift and acceded to the cockpit, running to the throttle. "Damnit, that thing already crashed...Cho you couldn't have..." Nida flipped of autopilot, musing that yes Cho could have. "Cho..."
"Nida."
Nida stopped himself from flinching, immediately looking back over his seat to see Cho standing there. His brown hair was messy, more messy then usual, and he had a host of cuts and burses that hadn't been there when he last saw the boy. He almost looked scared...no, the boy couldn't be scared. "Maru!"
Cho knew he was in trouble when Nida used his real name.
"Where have you been! What happened!" Nida jumped out of his seat and knelt down in front of the boy, checking him over.
"I...I don't know." Cho said with alight shutter. In actuality he'd been caught in the effects of Time compression, and dragged along to Ultimecia's time with Squall's team. Now he was back... "I just...had to get back...I had to get back to you, that was the only place I could go."
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And the whole time Squall's team had been doing this wasn't spent fighting. Looking back, it seemed like 10 minutes going through Time compression at the most, but it was a few hours in real time.
Then the time they spent going around this place and trying to break past the more powerful monsters in this place. Not to mention the time spent on breaking the seal in the library, that was an hour process by itself.
"I know all of you are tired, and want to get this over with as much as I do. This is it, it's almost over, the master room is just past the clock tower. We can make it through this, I've see what all of you can do. GFs included, the faster we do this, the faster we can get home." Squall told them, folding his arms.
"You know, that wouldn't have been inspirational if anyone else said it but Squall." Rinoa said with smile.
"She's right, your getting this leader thing down. Too bad it took you this long, it's almost over. " Zell said, he was right, everything they had been fighting for was about to come to a close, mission over, chapter finished…….
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