Author's Note: In my continuing effort to fix the scene change problem, I'm now gonna stick little lines between paragraphs. Here's hoping they show up.
PART XXIII
"How did you find out about this?" Vivli asked Dedji, still a little surprised.
"It's not harrrrrrrrrd to notice when a large scale warrrrrrrr is being planned, you know?" Dedji remarked. "And we werrrrren't going to miss out on it."
"Well," Andrew remarked, "We need all the help we can get."
"Yeah, we're storming San D'Oria." Voldos remarked proudly. "Nobody has ever managed to successfully attack San D'Oria." Even if they were attacking it, Voldos would remain proud of his home.
"Then how did Lich take over it in the firrrrrrrrrst place?" Dedji asked. Voldos fell deadly silent and the others let out a small laugh.
"Because somebody suggested we leave!" Boomed an elvaan voice. The assembled group spun around to face the elvaan King. "And I've had just about enough of seeing my kingdom run by a fleshless fiend."
"Yeah, if you're gonna dominate a culture, you should at least have skin." Remarked Bootus sarcastically.
"San D'Oria may have fallen, but the elvaan army is still strong, and nobody knows our city better than we do. We'll help as well." As the King spoke Vivli looked out on the sea of elvaan who had just arrived. She paused, pondering just how they had gotten into Bastok without her noticing.
The leaders of each party had gone to plan their own battle strategies, leaving the Light Warriors gathered by the fountain of Bastok.
"I remember coming here, after we met everybody out in the desert." Bootus remarked.
"First time we spent together." Zinkata laughed.
"Yeah, I was really nervous. Thought Bootus was going to throw me in a river or something." Vivli laughed.
"I'd never do something like that!" Bootus cried. The four laughed at the inside joke, baffling onlookers.
"Back then, we were just another four adventurers in a world of thousands." Voldos smiled, sounding unusually wise.
"Is that another thing you got from that book on how to pick up chicks?" Bootus asked sceptically.
"He's got a point." Vivli remarked.
"Look out, it's working." Bootus joked. Vivli hit him in the arm. She was aiming for his head, but couldn't reach.
"I mean, just how far we've come." Vivli explained. "We're about to go into battle to decide the fate of the world for the second time. I can't believe only a few months ago I'd never even heard of any of you."
"Yeah, my life would be unusually empty without you to mock, I have to admit." Bootus remarked.
"Well, no time to be all reflective. We've got a war to win." Zinkata reminded them.
"When are we marching out?" Voldos asked.
"Hey! Vivli!" Somebody cried before he could finish. A guard ran over. "I have a message. The President is holding a meeting with all the rulers and royalty of the factions willing to fight in the war."
"So?" Vivli asked.
"Well, urm, you're a princess, Princess." The guard remarked.
"Oh yeah." Vivli whistled as she remembered.
"You forgot?" Voldos cried sceptically.
"It's not what I'm used to!" Vivli snapped back.
"Well, run along, Princess. Your kingdom needs you." Bootus mocked.
"Shut up!" Vivli yelled, getting up. The guard looked very confused.
"Don't even try to understand." Zinkata advised.
Vivli walked into a conference room in Bastok, full of the most important figures in Vana'diel. The San D'Orian King and Princes, the Bastokian President, and his generals (which included Andrew), Windurst's tarutaru advisors and the head of the mithran mercenaries (who was, unfortunately, the same mithra that had pushed Vivli around on the Goliath) and Arcane, Cruth, Kazham's Chieftainess and Dedji.
"Ah, welcome Princess." The elvaan King said warmly. "Please. Take a seat." Vivli nervously sat down, her ears twitching.
"I must have missed something, here." The Bastokian President remarked. "She's a princess?"
"Long storrrrry." Remarked the Chieftainess.
"Alright." The King began. "This is what I propose. San D'Oria's walls are nigh unbreachable by conventional means. However, I feel a concentrated black magic attack on the outer walls at this point-" He pointed to a part on the outspread map of San D'Oria on the conference table. "-could break down the walls and lead us inside. However, we face a problem. This will be a narrow passageway that it will be difficult to get our troops through without heavy losses. For this reason, I feel the main confrontation should take place outside the city walls, so that we may effectively weaken their forces before we break through." He paused to make sure everybody was taking his information in. Only Vivli looked a little blank. "However, we cannot risk our own mages becoming equally weakened, and so the concentrated attack must come before the battle outside the city."
"And how do you prrrrrrrrropose we effectively beat the trrrrrrrroops in the battle outside?" The mithran captain asked.
"For that, I turn over to our resident white magic expert. Princess Vivli?" Vivli looked at the King blankly, completely unprepared. Especially unprepared to be called by her title.
"Urm." She mumbled. "I wasn't really expecting to be asked anything."
"Useless. Should have known." The mithran mercenary remarked.
"Show proper respect!" Snapped one of the Princes in her defence.
"But I can help." Vivli began venomously, giving the other mithra an angry glance. "The white mages will need to be assigned at least one warrior each. We have no bladed weapons and aren't that greater warriors."
"Not everybody is as weak as you." Spat the mercenary.
"You will have to leave if you keep this up!" Prince Trion snapped angrily. Vivli felt quite happy to have an elvaan prince coming to her defence.
"We'll be distracted casting anyway." Vivli gave in defence also, feeling a little embarrassed at being singled out. "But if we wait until the forces are pouring out onto the field, we should be able to get off one precise blast of white magic to destroy whatever forces Lich has. The rest will belong to the other fiends."
"And the white magic blasts wont hurt them?" Inquired the President.
"No." Vivli stated. "It'll heal them like it heals anybody else."
"So the logical thing to do is attack with the white magic first, and then follow that up with barrages of black magic?" The King said to check. Vivli nodded.
"We can handle thataru." One of the tarutarus stated.
"Excellent." The President said proudly. "The rest of us will have to rely on melee to protect the mages."
"You're overlooking an important fact." Prince Trion pointed out. "Even once we're inside the walls, the interior of San D'Oria was designed to repel attack."
"No wonder I always get lost there." Vivli grumbled.
"You'll have to stay close to the elvaans to manage it well. It was specifically designed to confuse enemies and lead them down the wrong path." The Prince explained.
"Understood." Nodded the President. "We have multiple adventurers who also are willing to help, and many more who simply have to." The President stood. "We are going to win this war. Now let's get ready to move out."
The three Light Warriors stood among the gathered ranks of troops and adventurers. Vivli quickly ran to them, and hid behind Bootus, panting.
"What are you doing?" Bootus asked curiously.
"They were trying to make me stay with the 'important people'." She deepened her voice for the quote, mocking the President. "I didn't want to leave you guys."
"Might have been smart, Viv." Zinkata said. "You're not the greatest warrior of all time."
"Not with a sword." She remarked. "But I'm pretty good with magic. We need good magic casters."
"Okay!" Andrew cried from the front of the crowd. "Attention!" The assembled warriors all snapped to attention. "Move out!" They began to march out of the city and across the desert, approaching San D'Oria.
Vivli was exhausted by the time the forests outside San D'Oria fell into their sight. They had been marching non-stop for a long time, and her feet were killing her.
"Aw, why do you elvaans live so far away?" She moaned to Voldos.
"We're marching to war." Voldos reminded her. "Maybe you should stop moaning about how tired you are?"
"But my feet hurt." She groaned. Bootus sighed, and picked her up. "Hey! Put me down!" She cried.
"You were complaining." Bootus laughed as she feebly struggled, trying to get out of the galka's arms.
"I hate being small." She moaned.
"Stop complaining and enjoy your free ride." Bootus stated.
"HALT!" Came a sudden cry from the front. "INTO POSITION NOW! AMBUSH!" Bootus dropped Vivli, who landed painfully. The assembled troops quickly looked around to see skeletons, water monsters and flying beasts attacking from all directions.
"Must have been some mass invisible spell!" Somebody cried.
"They knew we were coming!" Another shouted.
"FALL INTO POSITION!" Andrew screamed above the chaos. "MAGES! GET TO THE BACK!" Vivli turned around.
"Urm, good luck guys." She said as she ran off towards the rear ranks.
"You too!" Zinkata yelled, drawing his sword.
The monsters they were fighting were unfamiliar. Creations of the fiends, monsters that no warrior had seen for over a million years. Of course, Lich's skeletons several had seen before, and they still weren't dieing. Vivli made the rear of the lines, panting. She looked around to try and figure out what was going on. The mages were panicked, trying to avoid harm. Many were casting what spells they could. A few had run into the fray to help the warriors who needed them.
"White mages!" Vivli screamed. "You're with me!" The immediate mages ran to gather with Vivli. "I said, White mages, you're with me!" She cried again. Her voice was far too quiet to get the attention of everybody.
"Allow me." A hume bard said who had heard her.
Even Zinkata heard the cry from the bard to assemble the mages. He shook his head and cut down another beast. Fireballs of various kinds rained down from the sky as the airborne creatures unleashed their attacks. Summoners began to summon what creatures they could to assist the battle. It was a mess. They had become completely cut off and separated, ending up very confused and disorientated. They hadn't expected an ambush.
"Well, this is going brilliantly." Bootus remarked as he pounded a skeleton into the ground. It reassembled as soon as he turned away.
"You will be exterminated!" Bellowed the skeleton.
"That's lovely." The galka remarked. Zinkata ran over to his side.
"I hope Vivli's about to cast that spell or this could be the shortest war of all time!" He cried.
"Now just feel each others spell!" Vivli commanded as all the mages gathered around her continued to cast. "Aaaaaaaaand go!" A white light rocketed across the battlefield, tearing apart every skeleton that had gotten in the way. Many beasts and warriors who had been cut down rose from the dead, but every last one of Lich's skeletons was gone. Several white mages collapsed from the energy of the spell, Vivli was among them. Somebody caught her.
"Long time no see." Remarked a female voice she recognised.
Blasts from the air were tearing apart the ranks, even if they could defeat the beasts they were fighting.
"We don't stand a chance unless we can take those flying creatures out!" Bootus roared.
"The black mages!" Zinkata suggested.
"They're
distracted casting a spell to break through the city walls!" Voldos
reminded them.
"The white mages?" Zinkata asked. "Maybe a
combined banish spell or something-"
"Guys!" Vivli cried, running over to join them. "I have an idea!"
"It had better be to take care of those monsters!" Zinkata yelled, pointing up at the sky.
"It is." Vivli smiled. "Look who I ran into." She pointed to a taller mithra stood next to her, with an eye patch over one eye.
"Angel?" Exclaimed Zinkata. "Long time no see."
"Decided to join us in this little skirmish then?" Voldos asked.
"Wasn't really by choice. I was in Seblina when you marched past." She paused. "Luckily curiosity didn't kill the cat. At least, not yet."
"What's your plan, Li?" Bootus was always sceptical of Vivli's plans, but they were on a battlefield, so small talk wasn't a priority.
"Well, we get Angel to do what she did last time." Vivli smiled, removing from her neck a necklace with a large red ruby on.
"How come I've never noticed you wearing that before?" Zinkata asked.
"I wear it under my robe." Vivli pointed out.
"Besides, she's a girly girl wearing a necklace. Not that out of place." Bootus pointed out.
"DAMMIT! I AM NOT AGI-" Vivli got cut off.
"Would you people please shut up?" Angel asked. "Now, you want me to try and summon Bahamut, right?" Vivli nodded sheepishly, feeling a little embarrassed for being told to shut up. They had used Angel to summon the King of the Dragons before when they had needed his guidance.
"Yeah." Vivli tossed Angel the ruby. She then seemed to accidentally kick Bootus in the shins. Nobody seemed to notice.
Andrew and Celphie were battling back to back against the attacking monster hoards. A fireball rained down from above, blasting Celphie to the ground.
"SIS!" Screamed Andrew, running to her side. An orc was about to finish her off, but somebody else pounced it, taking it out. Andrew ran to Celphie's side, and she got up.
"Thanks." She said to the stranger.
"Don't thank me." Came the response. "I deserve nothing but death."
"What?" Andrew asked.
"I've done some things that can never be forgiven." The figure turned to face them. His face was burnt badly. His black hair was messing and ran plastered down the black armour he was still wearing. The burn marks could be healed with a white magic spell, so clearly he hadn't seen a mage.
"Olose?" Andrew exclaimed as he recognised him. Before the two could spark up a conversation, there was a crash in the air and a gigantic fiery portal opened. A huge dragon burst out.
"What do you wish of me, Light Warriors?" Boomed Bahamut, King of the Dragons, hovering in the air.
"What do ya think?" Bootus shouted up from the ground. "Kill these blasted monsters!"
"I am not your servant!" Bahamut roared.
"Sorry!" Vivli yelled up. "We wish your assistance. Before we only needed guidance, now we need you skill. You must destroy the attacking monsters or we are doomed to fail."
"Very well, Warriors of the Light." Bahamut turned away.
"This could be going better." Kary remarked as she watched the dragon charge up a powerful attack.
"It just brings us closer to our goal." Lich reminded her.
"At least it confirms the Light Warriors are out there." Kraken said firmly. The dragon unleashed a bright beam of light into the sky, blowing apart most of the flying creatures. "They will be here any moment. And when they come, they will finally achieve their destiny."
"This is going to hurt, isn't it?" Tiamat's second head remarked, considering what their plan entailed.
A meteor tore down from the sky and blew apart the outer wall to San D'Oria. Andrew smiled.
"They pulled it off." He said, turning back to Olose and Celphie. Olose had vanished. "Huh?"
"Forget that." Celphie said, cocking her head. "Most of the creatures are out here. This is our chance!"
"Oh, right." Andrew mumbled. "CHARGE!"
"I will give you my soul if you let me keep this ruby." Angel joked as she watched Bahamut in awe.
"Yeah,
but what would I do with it?" Bootus said with a shrug. Vivli
snatched it back off Angel.
"You can't have it. I like it.
It's pretty." Bootus went to speak. "Urr, pretty neat. I meant
pretty neat." She quickly said so he couldn't make any more
'girly' comments.
"Look out!" Angel cried, jumping back as a monster swung its sword down near them.
"CHARGE!" They heard Andrew below. The group looked at each other and shrugged.
"Guess we might as well." Zinkata joked.
"CHARGE!" The group yelled, running at the open hole into the depths of San D'Oria.
Author's Note: Angel, as well as Andrew and Celphie, belong to Thefrogkiller. Didn't mention it before because I wanted to keep Angel's reappearance a surprise. I've bugged you enough to go read Thefrogkiller's work, so I guess I don't have to tell you to again.
