Rising Shadow: A Fanfic by Gyppy

Summary: The Dark Lord Nebilim is spreading the fog of death through the land; a swordsman by the name of Abyssion goes out to find out how to stop this miasma, and also to avenge the death of his parents.

Along the way, he stumbles upon the Eternal Swordsman, Lloyd, and his group, and they work together to help defeat Nebilim and restore peace and tranquility to the land.

Author's Note: This is in an Author's Universe, which means that the storyline has nothing to do with the storyline of the game. There may be a bit of out-of-characterness, and lastly, this is a crossover fic (the concept of miasma is from Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles). There may be a few Original Characters, which are characters the author came up with to put in the fanfic.

Also, there will be some hints at pairings in this fic (sometimes a little more than hints ;) ): the most notable will be LloydxColette, and there'll also be sprinklings of ZelosxSheena, GenisxPresea and, later on, maybe a little KratosxRaine. I won't spoil the rest for you.

There'll be plenty of game spoilers in this fic, however, it is in an Author's Universe, so much of the spoiler content will have to do with relations and such.

Thank you for the review(s).

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia, Namco, Final Fantasy or Squaresoft/Square-Enix. All I own is this storyline, this story and my pathetic, writer's-block-afflicted mind.

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Chapter 14: The Seventh Seal: Fallen Power

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After spending the night in Flanoir, the group (sans Pronyma) traveled south to Nebilim's seventh temple. They knew that the Tower of Destruction would soon be revealed, and they would soon face the Dark Lord Nebilim.

Using a Blue Candle, they headed through the deep, dark temple. There were relatively few battles, and those that did occur were rather brief, much to the surprise of the group.

The seal room was a very large, dark cavern. The only light in the entire room radiated from a peculiar blue force field about the altar.

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Eternal Swordsman, a voice said, addressing Lloyd. Speak your name.

"My name is Lloyd," the swordsman said. "Why do you ask?"

You intend to fight me, the voice replied. I must know your name to fight you. Now, Eternal Swordsman... behold my power!

The Disaster finally appeared, floating above the altar in its crystal sphere. The entire seal room shook, and a black sphere appeared before the altar. From that sphere emerged the seal guardian.

The seal guardian took the form of a massive wyvern; its body was jet black, with midnight blue wings and glowing red eyes. It bore long, sharp claws, and fangs that put those of an ordinary dragon to shame. A line of sharp, curved, jet-black blades ran down its back, ending at the very tip of its tail.

And it looked at the Eternal Swordsman with a look that could only be called hungry.

"You seek the blood of Nebilim himself," the seal guardian said. "But you shall not get past me... Abysseus!"

"Say what you will," Kratos said, drawing his wings. "Any dark being who dares to fight against a seraph of Cruxis shall surely meet their fate!"

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Lloyd used Twin Tiger Blade on Abysseus to see if he could drag it to the ground; however, the seal guardian retaliated by spewing a stream of dark flame at him. Lloyd fell back almost immediately, but then tried to get back by performing Rising Falcon.

Presea ran over to Abysseus and performed Resolute Infliction, successfully bringing the foe down; she then performed Rising Punishment, followed almost immediately by Mass Devastation.

While Abysseus was still down, Kratos rushed forward and performed Fierce Demon Fang; he then pulled off a quick Light Spear before leaping back and casting Grave. However, Abysseus quickly caught on, and spat a ball of static at Kratos, knocking him back.

Abyssion tried to pull off a Victory Light Spear, but was knocked back mid-attack and sent flying into the wall. Abysseus then dove at Zelos, swinging a bladed tail at him and throwing him into a wall.

Sheena, seeing this, attempted to get back at Abysseus by performing Demon Seal; however, the seal guardian merely shrugged off the attack, and proceeded to cast Bloody Lance on Sheena, weakening her.

Genis cast Spread on Abysseus, launching it into the air; however, the seal guardian simply used the momentum to dive at Genis and knock him back in what resembled a massive Rising Falcon.

"How pathetic," Abysseus said, glancing at Lloyd. "Not even the mighty Eternal Swordsman can stop me."

"Call me what you like," Lloyd said. "But I'm not stopping this attack until the seal is broken!"

With a sound that resembled a snicker, Abysseus fired a stream of pure shadow at Lloyd, which overtook him and practically began to suffocate him until it faded.

"You have no choice," Abysseus said. "Stop the attack now, or die."

"Cruxis will never lose to a pathetic being such as you!" a new voice called out. "You shall die with the others of Nebilim!"

Lloyd turned to see if he could identify the newcomer, but it was already too late for Abysseus.

"RAY!"

A shining sphere of light appeared over Abysseus, and started firing numerous beams of pure light all around the seal guardian. The attack was relentless, and it lasted almost half a minute before the mana faded.

"Nice try," Abysseus said. "But I'm afraid Cruxis won't be existing anymore once I'm done with you."

The whole of the attacking group turned to face the doorway of the seal room; there stood the others of the Four Seraphim, Remiel and a pair of angel swordians. Yggdrasill floated rather absent-mindedly in the doorway, while Mithos, with rainbow-colored wings attached to his back, stood next to Yggdrasill, and Yuan, bearing rough purple wings, was standing on the other side of Yggdrasill. Remiel floated in front of Yggdrasill, and the two angel swordians hovered on either side of him.

"Your ignorance is without bounds," Yggdrasill said, closing his eyes and smirking. "But I'm afraid you won't live to see the day that you are no longer ignorant... all those who stand in my way shall perish." With that last word, he cast another Ray on Abysseus, knocking it back.

"Say what you will," Abysseus said. "Even if you do somehow manage to defeat me, Nebilim shall crush you and your pathetic Cruxis... he shall destroy the Tower of Salvation and free Derris-Kharlan from this world. He will destroy the Giant Kharlan Tree, and he will kill off all of your pathetic angels... and he will enslave all the humans, elves and half-elves remaining on this world, turning them into objects of evil."

"You will do no such thing," Mithos stated. "I'll kill you myself if you or Nebilim even dare to lay hands on the Tower of Salvation."

"Arrogant brat..." Abysseus muttered. "Well then, kill me... if you can!"

Abysseus launched his stream of darkness at the seraphim in the doorway; however, Remiel easily deflected it with a defensive barrier.

"You are merely a foolish tool of Nebilim," Remiel said. "If you ever so much as dare to lay a hand on anyone of Cruxis, you shall face a most painful death."

"Tough talk from a lower-class angel," Abysseus said, smirking. "You are, after all, the one who wanted to become one of the Four Seraphim after Kratos left."

"I'd say you're on the same level as that idiot Rodyle," Yuan said. "If it weren't for him, Nebilim's power would never have been known."

"Someone's getting desperate," Abysseus said. "Comparing me, the most powerful of the seal guardians, to a lowly Desian? Feh. If you don't believe in my power, I'll show you it myself!"

"Not if I show you myself," Yggdrasill said as he teleported in front of Abysseus. "You want to fight me? So be it... fight me. And don't hold back like you did last time!"

Abysseus launched a stream of dark fire at Yggdrasill, but the seraph merely blocked it with a shield of light. Yggdrasill retaliated by casting Holy Lance, which caught Abysseus off-guard.

From a safe distance, Yuan cast Thunder Blade on Abysseus, pinning it to the ground; Yggdrasill took advantage of the opportunity to cast Prism Sword, which sliced the guardian's wings clean off.

"Don't even try anything funny," Mithos said. "Without your wings, you're as blind as a bat."

"I'd like to have you know I don't need my wings," Abysseus said. "I'm taking all of you down!"

With that, Abysseus loosed an attack that resembled Prism Sword; however, it struck with black energy, and radiated an immense amount of dark mana, which overtook the seraphim and knocked them back.

"You think you can defeat me," Abysseus said. "But you're completely wrong. I won't fall so easily to a weak group of angels!"

"I think you should put on the asbestos underwear," Zelos said, smirking. "Because pretty damn soon, you're gonna be burning in hell!"

With that, Zelos started calling upon a new spell; feathers of mana rose around him as a silver aura appeared below him.

"DIVINE..."

A circle of pure light mana appeared beneath Abysseus.

"...JUDGMENT!"

The circle filled with flashing rays that resembled the beams of judgment; the display was more than enough to overwhelm the eyes of the onlookers.

Light mana radiated from the intense spell with almost as much fury as Indignation; the spell pummeled Abysseus mercilessly for a full minute, burning holes in its light-sensitive skin and tearing through its flesh with ease.

Everyone gaped at Zelos.

"It was easy as cake," the redhead said, grinning. "I couldn't very well let all our efforts go to waste, now could I?"

"Zelos, thank goodness you're okay!" Sheena suddenly said, running at Zelos and hugging him. "I was so worried about you..."

"You don't have to worry about me," Zelos said. "Frankly, I was more worried about you. I mean, you weren't screaming like the violent demonic banshee you usually are, now were you?"

"You idiot," Sheena muttered, allowing tears of gratitude to fall down her face.

"Hey, not bad, Zelos," Lloyd said, glancing at Zelos. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"The seal is broken," Abyssion said, stepping forward. "Look at it."

Everyone turned their heads to see the force field around the altar fade and the seal release; the Disaster broke free from its hold and floated in front of the altar, awaiting someone. Genis chose it, putting it away for later use.

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A sudden shaking overtook the land as the Tower of Destruction rose from the ground south of Hima.

"I see the seven seals have been broken," Nebilim said. "Well then, my challengers... I await you."

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Author's Note: Sorry about the lack of updates. I've been rather blocked on this fanfic lately.

Well, next chapter, they're heading to the Tower of Destruction to take on Nebilim! This is gonna be interesting...