PART XXIV
"Why can't you elvaan build a normal city?" Vivli asked as the five heroes ran down another one of San D'Oria's back alleys.
"I was under the impression Voldos was born here." Angel said.
"It's Voldos." Zinkata gave in explanation. Angel was puzzled for a moment, then, catching Voldos's clueless expression, nodded in understanding.
"Hey!" Voldos cried. "I know my way. I'm just taking you sight seeing, that's all."
"Sight seeing?" Angel repeated.
"Yes." Voldos said confidently.
"In the middle of a war?" Vivli asked, coming to Angel's side.
"Yes." Voldos said again. The two mithra shook their heads.
"You will be exterminated!" Came a skeletal cry as two of Lich's warriors ran at them.
"Dammit, Vivli! I thought you had taken these all out!" Bootus yelled.
"Only the ones on the battle field!" Vivli explained as they got closer. "Keep them away from me while I cast something!" Her order came. The others shrugged and decided to obey. Bootus ran at one, followed by Angel, who had drawn a rapier. Zinkata and Voldos closed in on the other.
Bootus flung a powerful punch, knocking off the head of the skeleton. It continued to attack regardless, hitting the galka back.
"Ow!" Moaned Bootus. Angel stabbed it in one of its ribs, grabbing its attention. It attacked her, and she dove under it, and then jumped over it. The skeleton kept trying to hit her, but she was too fast. "Viv!" Bootus yelled to the white mage. "Why can't you move like that?" She didn't reply, too busy concentrating on her spell.
"I guess somebody never learnt the best uses of being a mithra." Angel smiled, still dodging the blows. Bootus walked up, and pounded the skeleton so hard it fell apart.
"Looks like you don't know the advantage of being a galka." Bootus taunted, flexing his muscles to show his strength. The skeleton reformed, attacking Bootus.
"Neither do you, by the looks of it." Angel remarked as Bootus fell back, grappling with the skeleton.
"Does Bootus naturally fight with all mithra or something?" Zinkata pondered, dodging blows.
"I think he's just awkward around the opposite sex." Voldos suggested. "He should try learning from me." He stopped for a pose, which was unfortunate because the skeleton dived at him, knocking him over.
"Maybe its because his race doesn't have any other sex." Zinkata tried, hitting the skeleton off Voldos. A bright white light tore through it and it stopped moving. Vivli smiled, and began to recast.
"But he's not actually male is he? Or female? He's some kind of strange thing in the middle." Voldos casually said as they ran over to join in the other battle.
"Bloody galka are confusing." Moaned Zinkata.
"No. Everybody else is confusing!" Bootus protested. "I mean, we galka keep it simple." He casually shrugged. "No complicated two genders, awkward mating rituals, anything like that."
"You miss out on so much." Voldos sighed.
"Do you guys always have casual conversations while fighting?" Angel asked.
"Of course." Voldos said, trying to look cool. He got stabbed in the leg by the attacking skeleton, which ruined it. "Ow!" He cried.
"Oh, just grab it!" Bootus sighed. The four adventurers each grabbed a limb, leaving the skeleton struggling wildly.
"You will be exterminated!" It cried helplessly.
"Yeah, good luck with that, pal." Bootus said happily as Vivli tore it apart with her magic.
"Right, let's move!" Decided Zinkata.
"Whoa. Wait." Vivli panted. "I need to rest."
"Yeah, all that standing around must have been tiring." Bootus taunted.
"Spell casting is tiring!" Vivli cried, dropping down to gather her energy.
"We're never going to save the world at this rate." The galka sighed.
In
the main street of San D'Oria where
adventurers with better navigational skills were, the battle was
tense. Celphie had been cut off from Andrew, but managed to find
Dedji in the crowd. They were beating monsters back all around, which
was working until a loud screech came, and the ground seemed to
shake.
"Behemoth!"
Celphie cried, pointing at it. It was mind bogglingly big, its skin a
dark purple, its eyes a blazing yellow and with horns so big they
looked easily capable of smashing the entire city apart.
"Let us handle this." Dedji told her. "You hold off the other monsters." Dedji leapt on top of one of the now run down stalls in the San D'Orian streets. "Kazham Forces, unite!" She ordered. Many mithra ran to her. "Our target is that monster!"
Celphie watched in confusion as the mithra ran at it. She didn't quite understand Dedji's insistence the mithra handled it, but was too busy to argue. She was blasting back various creatures; the likes of which she'd never seen before, while desperately searching for her brother. She became distracted as she saw what had once been a young mithra hurl past her and smash into a wall. She turned away as the corpse dropped down. She looked over in horror as the behemoth tore apart the attacking warriors. She could see why Dedji had insisted they handle it. They were far more agile, dodging the swings and blows of the monster, and climbing up onto its back. They were hammering into it, tearing it apart, and still it stampeded. It charged directly towards Celphie, who swung aside, blasting at its underbelly. It continued, being swarmed by mithra who were leaping up onto it. She watched in awe. A gunshot rang out behind.
"Watch your back, sis." Andrew told her as a creature fell dead. Celphie rose.
"There you are!" She snapped. "I've been worried!"
"Ha. I'm not your baby brother anymore, Celphie. I'm the general of this army." Andrew said proudly. A gunshot rang out as Celphie fired over his shoulder. He turned around to see a strange monster fall dead.
"Still need me to look out for you, General." She smirked.
Dedji was clinging desperately to one of the giant horns. She swung herself around, driving her spear down into the flesh of the behemoth. It reared back, screaming, and flung her from it. She crashed down hard, and groaned in pain. The behemoth stormed through a building, smashing it apart.
Vivli shrieked in terror as a gigantic behemoth tore through a building that had previously cut the Light Warriors off from the action. Angel allowed herself a chuckle at this, despite the danger.
"SPLIT!" Zinkata ordered, and the five ran in separate directions. The beast rammed through the outer wall, sending dust everywhere. Vivli turned away, her eyes watering. She saw Dedji laying sprawled in the battle ravaged street.
"SIS!" She screamed, running.
"No! Viv!" Zinkata cried. "Look! It's the Chateau!" The behemoth had torn a clean path to the Chateau sure enough. "We have to end this!"
"I'm not leaving her!" Vivli yelled.
"Don't let personal issues get in the way!" Zinkata commanded.
"No!" Vivli screamed to the hume's face. "I do anything. I follow every command. I trust you. But not this time!" She turned and disappeared into the battlefield.
"VIVLI!" Zinkata yelled as loudly as he could, but it was with concern, not rage.
Vivli dodged falling monsters all around her, closing in on her injured sister. She got close, but something grabbed her tail, pulling her back.
"You will be exterminated!" Bellowed the skeletal warrior. She drew her staff, and skeleton moved in. She battered it feebly, and it grabbed hold of her, easily over powering her. She found herself pinned down as the creature prepared to finish her off. She shut her eyes tightly in fear.
"Hey!" Came a voice. "Let's see how you handle someone your own size!" The skeleton looked up as something flew at it. Vivli couldn't see what happened next, but heard the skeleton being beaten back. She got up to see it being held down by someone. She started concentrating, and cast her most powerful white magic spell at the two. The skeleton blew apart, and the figure turned. His face was distorted, but the white magic was healing it. It slowly turned back.
"Olose!" Vivli gasped in combined fear and horror. Olose's eyes became full of tears.
"Vivli!" He ran to her, and she backed away, afraid. "I'm-" He paused. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. How can I-" Another monster flew in, and Olose almost instinctively dodged it. Vivli looked, but in the chaos couldn't speak to him properly, and was fast losing him. She heard Dedji groan, and turned back to her.
"Sis! It's going to be alright." Vivli quickly began to cast a spell, struggling to concentrate as her mind raced. She was horrifically confused. The white light engulfed Dedji and she sat up.
"Look out!" She instantly yelled. Vivli spun around as Olose marched towards her. She let out a shriek of terror as he grabbed her and-
and hugged her? She looked up in confusion.
"I'm so sorry." Olose wept. "I can't ask you to forgive me. I can't expect you to forgive me. And I can never justify myself." Vivli could see these were real tears. "You defeated me. But I wasn't allowed to die. My body regenerated. Except the wound you had given me. Altana wanted me to remember. She wanted me to see. I had to see what I had done." He dropped to his knees crying, and Vivli followed him down, crying herself. "And then you healed that wound. But no. I can't take that as forgiveness. You can't forgive me."
"Oh, Olose." Vivli sighed, sounding like a stereotypical adventure heroine, "Of course I forgive you!"
"Get away from her you bastard!" Zinkata yelled in rage.
"NO!" Vivli cried, springing to her feet. "It's him! He's back!"
"Vivli, don't trust him." Zinkata warned.
"Viv, remember what he's done." Voldos chimed in.
"I couldn't forgive the bastard anyway." Bootus remarked.
"He's back to normal!" Vivli protested. Olose hadn't moved. He had stayed slumped, crying.
"So what if he is? He deserves to die for what he's done!" Zinkata spat.
"Nobody deserves to die!" Vivli yelled, almost reciting the white mage code. "Every sin can be made up for."
"This isn't the time for this. We have to get to the Chateau, but its heavily guarded." Olose looked up as Zinkata said this.
"The guards." He said, his voice breaking. "Run past them. I'll hold them off. They can't kill me, unfortunately." Vivli looked at him with tearful eyes.
"Can
we trust you?" Zinkata asked.
"I want to die." Olose stated.
"I will die before I harm any of you again. That you can be
assured of."
"Very well." Zinkata decided. "Let's move!"
The four Light Warriors and Olose ran off towards the Chateau.
Angel watched as the heroes bolted by, but didn't follow. Instead she turned her attention to the stampeding behemoth, which was wondering back towards the main part of the battle. She gulped and began to summon. Bahamut had long since disappeared, so she would have to rely on something else.
"Ifrit!" She cried as the fiery demon appeared. "Take care of that thing!"
"If you wish." Ifrit replied, charging at the behemoth. She watched as Ifrit was flung aside by the mighty horns of the beast. He started firing fireballs at it, and the behemoth reeled back. Andrew and Celphie caught sight of this, and ran to either side of Angel to protect her as she concentrated on helping Ifrit win the battle.
The demon was slammed into the ground and rose angrily. Angel poured her concentration into lending Ifrit what power she could.
"Ifrit," She yelled, drawing upon what ancient powers her abilities would allow, "Use Hellfire!" The demon burst into the air, and the ground beneath him boiled into lava, rising in a gigantic fiery ball. Ifrit pulled it back and batted it down at the behemoth. It exploded spectacularly, throwing light and flames all over the battlefield. The behemoth stumbled forwards.
"NOW!" Dedji commanded, and the mithra swarmed the beast, driving their weapons through it. It screamed and bellowed before collapsing. Dedji sighed, jumping down and off of the monster. She looked across at the Chateau. "Good luck sis." She whispered. "It all depends on you now."
"No chance." Sighed Voldos, looking at the hundreds of enemies swarming around the Chateau. "You wouldn't last two seconds." He said to Olose.
"I'm
immortal." Olose gave in explanation.
"Don't try to fool
me." Vivli said to him with concern. "A werewolf is mortal
provided his physical body remains in existence. They'd rip you
apart and kill you."
"I can hold them off until your inside. Then your safe and you can deal with the fiends." Olose told Vivli.
"You're asking me to let you die for us!" Vivli cried. "I can't let you do that!"
"Vivli. Do you know how old I am? Six hundred and fifteen. For six hundred years I've existed on this planet. Six hundred years have passed me by. Six centuries. And I've always served myself. Always fighting for a reward, for money, for glory, for me. Just this once, at the end of the road, let me do something for somebody else. Let my life be worth something." Vivli looked at him, tears forming her eyes. "Let it end with me helping somebody else, not just myself. Don't let my life be worthless." He placed a hand on her cheek. "Let me die. Let me die for you. Let me die to save the world." Zinkata gulped, and nodded.
"Okay. Let's do it." He said grimly. Vivli looked at him, tears pouring down her face. The look said it all. Zinkata's expression remained stony, but grim.
"Thank you." Olose mouthed to Zinkata silently, making sure Vivli couldn't see.
"I love you!" Vivli sobbed. Olose smiled.
"I know." He smirked despite his tears. Vivli managed a tearful half smile as Olose turned towards the monsters. "Now run." He sprinted into the hoard of guards as they ambushed him.
"You will be exterminated!" Cried the skeletal guards in their typical fashion. Some of the more sentient monsters began snarling other things at him.
"Do you really think you can take us all out?" One cried.
"No." He answered simply.
"Then prepare to die!" It yelled.
"Fantastic." Olose replied, tears forming in his eyes as he glanced at Vivli and began to fight. Fight for her. He had lied. He had said it was for the world. It was for her.
"Olose!" Vivli sobbed. Zinkata pulled her away and the four Light Warriors sprinted for the Chateau, bursting through the main door. The four fiends awaited them beyond. Once again, the Light Warriors alone were marching to an epic confrontation to decide the fate of Vana'diel.
Author's Note: This chapter is slightly shorter than normal, but that felt like the best place to end it. A few things, Ifrit's Hellfire is based off the move in FFVIII because I haven't seen his attack in FFXI, so sorry about that, but I made sure to say it's an 'ancient technique' so it could just be something special Angel got him to do.
Also, I seem to be able to create humour, but sad scenes I've never been able to do. This ended with my attempt. It's short, but the best I could do. It feels a little rushed to me, but writing scenes like that never was a strength of mine.
And Star Wars fans may recognise "I love you" "I know" as the Leia/Han exchange in Empire Strikes Back. Well, this time it was an intentional homage. When I first invented Olose, he was supposed to be a Han Solo type figure. Once I applied the werewolf backstory (which was originally an idea for a whole story on its own) he became a crossover between Han Solo and The Doctor from Dr Who. At least in my head. So that line homage's his origins more than just my favourite movie. This is doubled by having him say 'fantastic' which was shoe-horned in as the new Doctor's catchphrase from the new Dr Who series. I thought if I was killing him off, I might as well homage his origins first.
