Chapter 9: Excitate Vos E Somno, Griever
A few hours back before the Attack on Esthar…
Beneath the ocean, near a deserted island, creatures of the deep lurked freely in the dark waters searching for food. Beneath the surface of the waves, a school of silverfish swam from one corner to the other, blocking out what further sunlight that could get through to the ominous depths of the sea.
Just then, a lonely wailing cry echoed from the deep part of the ocean, scaring the agitated silverfishes away. From the dark shadowy bottom, emerged a serpent-like creature swimming towards the light at full speed, creating giant bubbles along its trail.
As its blue horned head broke the surface of the water, it gave a small roar and looked up with its jade-green eyes around it. Seagulls shrieked in the air, and the ocean was calm. No boats were in sight as the golden sun casts its hot rays upon the body of water in where the dragon was.
Where is it? Earlier, it felt the faint presence of one of its kind, when it was hibernating beneath the ocean. It felt the resonance of the ocean waves disturbed when the other dragon had landed into its territory, stirring it further from its long sleep and prompting it to search out this intruder.
Dragons don't go a-visiting each other; each was giving the duty by the Master to guard its own territory and guard their own elemental spheres. This further intrigued the dragon. It looked around, and felt the strong aura emanating a few feet away. It quickly swam towards the aura to find an injured reddish-gold dragon.
The first thing that came to the blue dragon's mind: Injured? But that cannot be possible! Unless…
"What happened to you?" the blue dragon asked, its jade-green eyes blinking in confusion. The red dragon cried hoarsely as it tried to lift its injured wings. The blue dragon saw the holes in the lavender wings. The red dragon slowly lifted its head, showing its injured eye.
"What has those mortals done to you?" asked the horrified blue dragon.
All…for…a…good…cause…
"You mean…you gave them your Sphere?" The red dragon nodded weakly. "But…why?"
We…are being hunted…two of our kinds…have been captured…
"Never…" The blue dragon shook its head, its aquamarine mane flapping wetly against its silvery-blue scales. "This is impossible-"
Now, for the rest of us…our lives are at stake…
Suddenly, both dragons froze. The air around them grew tense. Even the cries of the sea birds could not be heard. Everything was too still. The sudden silence made them wary. The red dragon sniffed the air tentatively. Its tired, amber eyes widened in horror.
NO…they are here…RUN…
"But…you're injured!" cried the blue dragon. "I just can't leave you here!" It shook its serpentine head.
Just GO… With a roar, the red dragon pushed the water dragon back into the waters with whatever leftover strength it had. Even though it had been weakened terribly, its force managed to push away the blue dragon down a few feet into the safety of the sea, away from the surface. A sorrowful cry resonated through the ocean. Indignant, the blue dragon quickly swam upwards again towards a dark shadow above that was the red dragon.
NO… The red dragon screeched telepathically in its mind. Go back…
Without warning, a white metallic contraption fell into the waters, trapping the red dragon in it in an instant as the opening below it clang shut automatically before the red dragon could escape. The surprised blue dragon managed to halt in time, but it started to wail again as it watched its mate being lifted away from the waters, behind the white bars.
Go…be free…go find- Before it could say more, the cage disappeared from the waters, carrying the trapped dragon together. From above, the blue dragon heard its mate shrieked its last cry. The blue dragon swam quickly away, and once it was a safe distance away from the red dragon, it appeared slowly out from the water once more to see its mate writhing inside the white cage that was being lifted up from the waters by a white crane installed at the end of a magnificent white ship. It watched the weakened red dragon roared angrily in defiance at the white men in coats that had gathered around it before its cage was draped with a huge dull green canvas. Then, it was carried away below the ship, its mate lost from the blue dragon's sight.
The Water Banryu had seen enough. It was time to alert the others. It observed the white ship to store it away in its memory. And one thing surprised it.
The white ship that had come and take away the Fire Banryu had a white sail bearing the unmistakable symbol of a silver-white Griever.
In another dimension, a creature stirred silently in its sleep. An amber eye lifted lazily. The eye blinked slowly, and soon both eyes were lit up, illuminating the darkness surrounding it.
Yawning, the creature stood up, and arched its back, flexing its powerful limbs. It spread its white wings out wide and stretched. Then its wings started to beat rhythmically, raising the leonine creature into a standing position. Its black whip-like tail coiling around its hind legs, the creature lifted its blade-infused limbs, watching it glow with a dazzling orange light in the dark.
Then it looked around its surroundings. Millions of stars danced about it, and as it turned, it saw a globe of light shining from a distance away. Beyond the white shaft of light, it sighted something.
Something that reckoned it to come.
Something that irked its attention.
Something that demanded…destruction.
Just then, a huge dragon-like creature flew from the light towards the leonine creature. It came to a rest in front of it, landing silently on its four reptilian feet as it beat its powerful six wings rhythmically. The dragon lifted up its dark green head, and raised its six, silvery-black wings in respect to its finally-awakened master.
"What do you want?" spoke the leonine creature, pausing to remember the name of the familiar creature. "…Bahamut ZERO?"
The dragon transmitted its message telepathically. Information about the world below was exchanged in a matter of seconds. The creature's eyes dimmed slightly, then glowed even brighter as it nodded its lion-like head.
Sire…The prophecy is coming true…what are you going to do? Bahamut ZERO asked.
"I'll see what I can do…where are the Banryus now?"
Again, the dragon spoke silently into its master's mind. The news the dragon conveyed was not good. Bahamut ZERO felt the growing anger emanating from the king of GFs. The leonine creature finally turned away and said, "Them annoying mortals…go, you may leave."
Bahamut ZERO lowered its head in respect before turning to go, extending its six black wings. As its wings beat with powerful strokes, it rose into the air and took off with a screech, and flew back towards the shaft of light where it had come from. The light grew brighter as Bahamut ZERO left the dimension, and the light later dimmed to its normal intensity.
The creature's amber eyes furrowed with annoyance as it thought back to Bahamut ZERO's message. Looking back down at its claws, it looked up and gave out a loud roar that shook the dimension it was in. Its wings started flapping loudly, and it turned once more towards the bright white light, with the stars disappearing behind like meteors flashing past, its roar echoing loudly in the place where it was once left to sleep after a horrifying battle in the future that had almost ended its life.
It never wanted to answer another summon again. Never, after that mad sorceress had summoned him. That was the last summon he was going to answer, it vowed. But things seemed to have taken another bad turn in the present. It roared angrily as it entered the white light into another world, somewhere nearer to home.
Planet Earth, present day.
GRIEVER SHALL BE FREE
TO SALVAGE THE FREEDOM
OF ALL GUARDIAN FORCES
HUMANS SHALL DIE
WHEN THE LIBERI FATALI
GATHERS ONCE MORE
THE WORLD WILL BE SAVED
FROM THE BRINK OF DESTRUCTION
Somewhere on planet Earth, within the walls of unused machinery, a figure stumbled into the midst of a destroyed lab, his feet crunching onto the debris, breaking it into pieces as though they were nothing. He looked around. The depths of the darkness did not frighten him, but actually gave him a bit of solace as he tried to find a safe spot to hide.
Where the hell am I? What the hell is this place? The figure settled down beside a huge slab of stone, kicking away what seemed to be rotten roots from an overgrown thick bark of a tree in the middle of the lab. His face winced into that of agony as he slowly sat down, leaning back against the cool, rough texture of the slab. Looking down, he could see crimson blood flowing from one side of his body, staining his trench coat in dark reddish-brown patches. His chest throbbed with so much pain, he had difficulty trying to breathe without flinching from the wound.
The figure groaned, clutching at his wounded side as he quietly cast some healing spells. He felt the magic taking effect as his pain eased into a dull ache at the side. He held up his weapon grasped tightly in his right hand, watching the tainted blade edged in dried blood.
Fuck…I hate them… Tired of even holding his weapon, he let go of his Gunblade, the weapon clinking loudly on the metallic floor, and he winced from the noise. He then got out a gleaming yellow spherical gem from inside his trench coat and looked around for a place to hide it. Finding one, he reluctantly got up amidst the pain and struggled to walk towards a small, burned dent at the bottom of the wall in front of him. Upon reaching it, he jammed the gem in the dent beneath the wall, and then he kicked some debris over to cover the place up.
Argh…Damnit. He collapsed onto the floor again, the pain shooting through him and made unbearable as he slowly stumbled back to the safe spot again. He sat back down and casted a stronger healing spell. The pain abated for a while, but still did not go away. He gave up on casting and sat against the stone slab, pondering over what had happened to him.
Why…why do these crappy things keep happening to me? He eyed his bloodied Hyperion lying a few feet away from him. From the entrance, he saw droplets of dark red trailing its way towards the centre and to his spot. The pain coursed through his body again, but he ignored it. He couldn't do much about the injury anyway- blame it on those monsters. He was no doctor, and the last Elixir had been used during the last battle for curing his friends.
His friends. His Posse. Fujin and Raijin. He wondered where they were now. Had they managed to survive? Only Hyne knew.
Quietly, gathering what little mental strength he had left, he tried to summon a GF. Diablos came into his mind, albeit a bit later than usual. The GF looked reluctant to answer him.
Sire… The GF finally spoke into his mind, unfolding its huge bat-like wings, revealing its demonic body. Thousands of black bats encircled about it, though they didn't made any noise at all.
"Go find…" The figure paused as he tried to think up of the Garden people he knew. He could only think of one person whom he could trust for that moment.
But Sire… Diablos interrupted. It's dangerous to go out now…
"You can talk into her mind, can't you?" asked the figure, a scowl on his face.
But…
"I don't care. You go tell her…" He made a mental picture of a young blond lady dressed in light orange. "…to find me here."
The GF nodded its devilish head slowly and said, Yes, I will try, sire… and the creature left his mind in a puff of flying bats. Then silence.
Exhausted from it all, the figure settled down for some sleep, pulling Hyperion close to him. He doubt those monsters will find him here, but it was better to be prepared, just in case. Casting another bout of healing spells, he closed his tired jade-green eyes to rest.
Until help arrives….
Yay...new chapter. And things are gonna be very interesting henceforth...