"So, this is the great Griever."

Silence reigned in the chamber for a few moments. At least, as much silence as there could be. Parts of walls were crumbling, and the wind was blowing in through the holes. Ogopogo and Odin watched the latest arrival. Leviathan tended to Starlet, quickly pulling out the remaining needles. But she was in bad shape. She needed another one of those elixirs, or at least to be moved to a safe location to have her injuries tended to. At least, for right now, Crusader was concerned with Wyvern's arrival and not them. But Leviathan feared that too…he could tell Wyvern was stronger but still inferior to Crusader at his current power.

"Wyvern." Crusader answered, addressing him in his dark voice. "So you too managed to survive. I am beginning to wonder by now if all of you, in fact, did. Perhaps Bahamut and Phoenix were simply wise enough to leave well enough alone. Not that it matters now. They will have to die as well after you are finished."

This only made Wyvern grin wider. "You're the only one who's finished, Griever. I've ascended above all the other espers now."

Crusader snorted in reply. "Still the overconfident idiot, Wyvern? You always were a troublemaker and nothing more. You're lucky Bahamut did help you out in life so much."

Wyvern raised an eyebrow. "So, you seem to know our names and about us. Mind telling me why?"

"I've already explained it by now." Crusader sourly answered. "What will such knowledge avail you when you're turned to ashes? You can ask your little brothers and sisters when you get to the next world."

Wyvern only snickered at this. "You have no idea what you're up against, do you?"

However, Leviathan knew better. "Wyvern, don't attack!" He called out to him. "Get away! Use your new power to get away from him! He's too strong for you!"

"Oh, hush up, Leviathan." Wyvern immediately shot back, not turning away from Crusader. "You and your brother always were cowardly and weak. I wouldn't expect you to understand how far I've become. But why take my word for it?" With that, Wyvern uncrossed his arms and slid his feet into a ready position. He grinned at Crusader wickedly. "Let me show you…"

"Don't do it!" Leviathan boomed. "You can't win! Stop it, Wyvern!"

But Leviathan's warnings fell on deaf ears. Nothing was going to stop Wyvern now. The esper grinned and held back a fist. He focused for a moment, tightening it and seeming to summon his strength up to bear. His wings flew up behind him, and he glared menacingly at Crusader the whole time, who never changed. Then, giving out a "ha", Wyvern shot forward like a flash, and took off. He reared his fist back more, focused, and then finally arrived right in front of Crusader. He immediately brought his fist forward with all his strength and momentum and connected it.

A clap of thunder rang through the chamber. The room shook again, and more rocks and dirt fell from the ceiling. The floor buckled under the power from it.

And through it all…Crusader's head moved back one inch.

Despite having expected this reaction the whole time, Leviathan was still horrified. He didn't show it, and neither did the others, but they still stiffened in panic and fear, knowing that another severe beating was about to take place. The biggest shock was on Wyvern's face. He gaped in total amazement at his lack of ability to do anything. Again, after another surge in power, he still found himself frustrated by his opponent. His hand slowly peeled off of Crusader's face and fell to his side, limp and effortlessly, expressing his shock to the fullest.

Leviathan groaned inwardly. He had known this would be the result all along. Wyvern had gotten stronger indeed, and at this point surpassed even Tiamat and his Pyron. But Ashura had been much stronger than him and still lost to Crusader. He was nothing compared to him in this form. If Wyvern had tried sensing him, he might have known that before arriving. But Leviathan guessed at this point that Wyvern had been so full of pride and delusions about his own power that he failed to realize the truth that his was truly inadequate. He had refused to believe anything could be stronger, especially after how hard he had worked.

"Was that supposed to hurt?" Crusader mockingly asked. "If you can do that enough times in a row, Wyvern, you might give me a massage."

Wyvern fell back on his feet, a distance away from Crusader, and gaped at him. He didn't move or budge, not knowing what to say or do. He realized now his own power was nothing. Crusader knew that too, and seemed to be relishing every moment of it in his silent pride. Wyvern gaped a bit longer, but then shook his head in disbelief. "That's…impossible." He gasped. "My power…my power has to be the greatest…"

Crusader snorted. "You espers…always prattling on about power when you haven't the slightest inkling what true power is. But I have always known about real power. I am power personified." Crusader paused for a moment after that, staring at Wyvern. He seemed to be thinking, considering something or mueling a possibility over while he looked at him. Finally, a conclusion or idea seemed to be reached, and Crusader sounded much happier and insightful. "In fact…I think I shall educate you all on power right now. At last, I'll have the opportunity to exert some of my true power…"

Leviathan and the others went pale as ghosts. He had to have heard wrong…

"True power...?" He exclaimed aloud. "Aren't you already fighting with your real might?"

Crusader laughed wickedly in response to this. It was loud and long…and made everyone's blood run cold. It sounded like a laugh once again mocking the espers' ignorance…or at least their wishful thinking. Leviathan already had a good idea of what the answer to his question was, and he didn't like it… None of them did.

"This? This being my true power? Don't make me laugh." Crusader answered confidently. "I'd be pretty foolish to go about calling myself a god if this was the highest I could go. Oh no, Leviathan…I can go much, much, much higher. This bit of power I'm at right now is insignificant."

"You're lying. You have to be lying." Odin suddenly accused. "There's no way you could contain that much power within you if it really existed. It would kill you trying to come out."

"Well, at least you're thinking in the right direction, Odin." Crusader acknowledged. "You're right. My true power was too much for me to handle or for anything around me to endure. That is why when I was born, I was born in triplicate. I was three parts of one whole. Each part of me represented a piece of a puzzle that could only be completed if all three could combine. I have, in total, three different forms, representing each of my three aspects of existence: wisdom, courage, and power. Your entire lives, you saw the form of my wisdom. This form represents my courage. But my power form…" He laughed darkly at this. "Oh…it's more horrible than death."

Wyvern's shock began to wear off. In its place, anger began to flow in. He balled his hand into a fist and waved it at him. "You're bluffing! I don't believe you!"

"Believe what you want." Crusader simply answered. As he did, he began to slide his feet out and plant them again. He balled his own hands into fists and held his arms up at his sides. Already, Leviathan knew the horrible truth. He wasn't bluffing. Why would he have any reason to? He was already beyond any of them. Yet the thought that he had even more power terrified him. "I'll soon dispel your myths by showing you my power form right now."

With that, Crusader tightened up, and began to grunt loudly. The sound was as if he was under a tremendous strain. Immediately, the heat began to build up, and continued past making a golden haze and turned almost into golden flame around him. The sheer power pouring off him expressed that. The air began to charge terribly, and a violent tremor began to rush through the chamber again. But it was stronger this time…and built itself up quickly into a quake. The place rocked violently. Odin was thrown to the floor, while Ogopogo grasped at it. Wyvern himself stumbled back, struggling to stay up. The holes in the room developed larger fissures and cracks around them, and large pieces of stone fell from the ceiling to the ground and shattered. Crusader grunted louder and louder, nearly crying out over the strain of his own growing power. His feet began to dig into the ground under the force.

Abruptly, the armor around his legs exploded. The shards went flying everywhere, and quickly Wyvern and the others shielded themselves. Leviathan once again coiled around Starlet in a flash, shielding her from further damage. They all looked back to Crusader, and saw why his armor had exploded. His legs had suddenly grown twice as long and had become muscular and huge, as big as tree trunks. He was in bare, bronze-colored skin there, but he had no toes. It seemed as if his feet merged together in a boot-like shape with one, massive, foot-spanning toe. He kept grunting, and as he did his voice grew deeper yet. A popping and cracking was heard from him, and as the espers watched, they realized that it was Crusader getting more vertebrae. His torso was growing inch by inch, and his armor was straining and breaking under it. Pieces of it began to fall off or pop off as he got bigger. His chest swelled too, popping off the rest of the armor as his torso grew massive, about as big as Odin. Rippling, rock-solid muscle was underneath.

He grunted again, and flexed an arm. Immediately, the armor exploded on it, and a hulking arm was underneath, again thick as a tree and bulging with muscle. He flexed his other arm, and it did the same. The claw difference was gone. Both arms were now identical…huge and solid. The thing's voice was deep now, and it cracked its neck as the curling spike that had come out before suddenly rolled out again and straightened. What more, it slid across his head until it was right in his forehead. Once that happened, the armor around it exploded off as well…revealing a massive, blood-red, razor sharp horn. Giving a yell, which was more like a lion's roar at this point, the rest of the helmet exploded…revealing yet another helmet underneath. But this one was smooth and dome-like, enclosing Crusader's head. A small tuft of white-blond hair trailed out like a horse's tail from an opening in the back, and the red horn protruded from an opening in front. There was no place for a mouth here, but there were eyeholes, and they had turned white, purple, and green…a monstrous combination.

The quake died off, although the entire room was now fractured and pieces of stone continued to rain down. The flames died, but a haze of golden energy continued to hang on the monster. What now stood before the group was a hulking behemoth, huge and terrifying. It was easily twice the size of Wyvern, and looked solid and formidable as a mountain. It had no weapon, but it hardly needed one. Leviathan's heart nearly froze just scanning it. He realized now that not only was Crusader not bluffing, but what Jadea had feared and told Bahamut was true. Its strength really did match Jadea's worst estimations.

Crusader took two monstrous steps forward, shaking the room and crushing rocks under its feet. Its new voice bellowed. "Do you see it now, little espers? Are you beginning to regret your puny little decisions? I could have ground your bones into powder in my last form, but now that I'm in this one I doubt I could keep from killing even if I tried to hit you gently…which I won't, by the way."

Wyvern couldn't respond. He continued to gape and gag. Leviathan screamed in his brain a clear message. Run. For the love of God, Wyvern…run! One of us has to survive! I don't know if any of us will ever be strong enough to fight it, but run!

Crusader laughed darkly. "You worked so hard, Wyvern, but as always you talk much more than you could ever back up."

Wyvern held his mouth open a few more moments, shocked at Crusader's new strength. However, a fire had been lit in his brain. Crusader had insulted him and his power, and he wouldn't stand for that. He hadn't obtained all of this new strength just to be put down by his first opponent. Wyvern's horror slowly vanished and began to be replaced with anger. He planted his feet on the floor and balled his hands into fists again. His teeth clenched and he began to hiss angrily.

"I don't care how strong you think you've become!" Wyvern snapped. "I'll still beat you! I'm the strongest of all the espers now! And I'll prove it! Bahamut…he said this attack could go beyond my own power… So watch now as I give you a Pyron far stronger than your little wimp Tiamat ever could!"

Wyvern dug his feet into the ground, extended his wings, and immediately began to focus. Rage and emotion filled his charging this time, and his power quickly rocketed upward. To the espers' surprise, the glowing heat began to ripple around him as well, making him far stronger than ever before. True to his word, Leviathan watched as the power he was summoning to himself exceeded Wyvern's previous limit, and continued to climb rapidly. The ground began to shake once again. More rocks and debris fell from the ceiling, and the espers were forced to take cover again. Leviathan clutched Starlet tighter and began to think of what would happen next. He realized already, in short order as the sky grew dark and charged, that Wyvern's attack was going to be stronger than Bahamut's. But he had no idea if it was enough… Wyvern sure seemed to think it was, and continued to build up and up. Odin, noticing his strength, seized the frightened Ogopogo and began to drag him back against the wall. He crouched as he did so.

"Get back." He ordered Leviathan. "This attack is so strong I don't know how much area it'll destroy."

Leviathan agreed, and began to drag Starlet back as well. Crusader never reacted, or if it did one couldn't see its face. At last, Wyvern was at his peak. His eyes blazed with anger and fury, and he opened his mouth wide.

"Say goodbye, Griever! Pyron!"

The newest blaze burned even brighter than Bahamut's Megapryin. In all possibility…it was stronger. The espers were only able to look at the blazing balls of light that erupted from Wyvern's throat for a moment before forcing to avert their eyes in pain. Each ball burned more strongly and intensely than ever before, and sailed with deadly speedstraight for Crusader. Even the monster had to be shocked at the speed. For a brief moment before looking away, Leviathan managed to see Crusader, in a sort of stunned manner, uncross its arms and stare at the attack in surprise. But he had to look away right after, and after that happened the attack erupted.

The newest blast was gigantic. Leviathan felt himself nearly be blown away by it. Odin was too, and had to clutch on hard to the cracks in the floor to stay still. Ogopogo still went flying a bit, though somehow he must have stabilized because he stopped crying out. Leviathan couldn't see much. He had to keep his eyes closed due to the blinding flash that erupted before them. Horrible, searing heat swept over their bodies. It hurt and burned, but they had no choice but to endure it until it passed. A wave of power struck them all, nearly throwing them off where they were planting themselves. Gigantic cracking sounds went all around them as the walls crumbled and collapsed. The entire mountain sounded like it was coming down, and yet no more rocks or pebbles hit them. Only a few pieces of rock slapped their bare skin as the explosion raged. It was also so loud they thought that they would go deaf. Their heads pounded and ached from the blast.

At last, the light died down. Leviathancoughed hard. The others did too, and Leviathan finally opened his eyes to see the source. The other espers followed suit.

The top of the mountain had been completely blown away. A few small fragments of rock rained down, but they were smoldering and smoking. Most of the rest of the rock had flown anywhere from ten feet to two miles away. Where the espers were laying, there was still a rough outline of where the mountain chamber had been cut into the rock, but on the side where Crusader had been standing there was nothing but the blasted rock. The mountain had been cut down to a more even size with the others. The clear sky shown down, although the sun still hadn't passed through the opening yet. The entire mountaintop was smoldering and shedding rock dust. All of the espers were covered with dirt now.

But Leviathan focused on the remains of the chamber. To his surprise, the Crystal looked unharmed. It still was perfectly pure and beautiful. Now, Leviathan began to realize that it held a power inside it as well, and it must have been a great one to survive the explosion. However, his next focus was on the middle of the mountain, where Crusader had been standing. The smoke and dust was thickest there, and he waited to see what had happened to Crusader. Was it gone? Was it hurt? Did it dodge or feel nothing? Wyvern was panting, standing on the opposite side and looking stressed and strained. He had put a lot of power into that, perhaps too much. It looked like he had worn himself-

Leviathan's thoughts cut off as he saw the smoke suddenly ripple wildly. It puzzled him for a moment, until he suddenly realized it was something incredibly fast moving out of it. But even as he realized that, he heard a sickening ripping and breaking sound, sounding thick and wet. He and the other espers quickly turned their attention to the sound…and their jaws dropped yet again.

Crusader had emerged. What more, the thing lacked a single mark on it. It didn't even look burned and dirty from the explosion. It had taken it all, and Leviathan had noticed its power had not diminished. It hadn't bothered knocking the attack away, either. It just stood up to it and let it come. However, that wasn't what was shocking them. Nor was it the fact that in a split second Crusader had emerged from the smoke and was now right before Wyvern. Certainly, Wyvern's shocked, frozen, open-mouthed expression didn't surprise them either. Whatdid was Crusader's hand…

…which had now gone right throughWyvern's body and protruded from his back.

"Goodbye." Crusader mocked in response.

Astunned silence went over the field. Only the faint sound of cold wind and a few bits of rocks and dust falling to the ground was audible. Wyvern didn't gag, just held his mouth open. His eyes were open wide, but already the sight in them was fading. Blood slowly trailed from his mouth, and then began to drip on the ground, quickly mingling with more blood that dripped from the sides of the fatal wound. Leviathan read Wyvern's mind, and sensed as his power slowly faded into nothingness. All of Wyvern's strength…gone in a heartbeat. After that, he saw his thoughts slowly fade, and then cease all together. His body limped and went totally lifeless, and soon his body only hung from Crusader's arm.

The thing raised its other hand and seized Wyvern by the neck, and then ripped its fist out of his body. Blood splattered on the ground along with pieces of bone and organs, and the inner wound continued to drip. But Wyvern no longer cried out. Crusader then simply tossed the body forward, and Wyvern's carcass fell to the ground right in front of the espers. It landed face up, Wyvern's expression still frozen in the last moments of horror. But it moved no more, and Leviathan knew it would never again.

Wyvern was dead.

"No…" Leviathan moaned, gazing on the body of his dead brother. This couldn't be real. He trembled in fear. Perhaps he was never close, but he was still his brother. And despite the fear of dying he hadn't ever faced the actual sight itself. But now, Wyvern, their brother, was dead and lay before them. He had been killed instantly, and never even had a chance to fight back.

"We're dead…we're all dead!" Ogopogo cried, still mortified at Wyvern's bloody body.

"Don't be a coward!" Odin shot back, though Leviathan could sense he too realized it was hopeless. "We can't give up now!"

"It's over, Odin! Get it! It's all over! We're all going to die!" Ogopogo whined aloud, his voice growing hysterical. Crusader was enjoying every moment of it, crossing its arms again and letting the blood slowly drip off its one hand. It wanted them to be terrified and panic. It wanted them to be in so much agony that they'd beg for their lives…then it would kill them anyway, each one more horrible than the last to make them cry out louder. Leviathan didn't know this for a fact, but he already had guessed it and he was not far from the truth.

But Ogopogo was sadly right. It was over. Any attempt to fight now would be a meaningless gesture. They were doomed from the start. Now, no one could save the humans or them. There was nothing left to do but give out one final pathetic burst of strength and attempt to leave a mark on Crusader before it killed them all. There was no one left to stop it anymore.

"You were all so boldly attacking before. Why not now?" Crusader chided darkly. "You want me to go first this time? Then let's see…whoever should I kill first? How about that bloody doll you're clinging to, Leviathan? You want to be the brave man and try and stop me?"

Leviathan snapped out of his own thoughts, turned to Crusader, and glared. "Leave her alone!" He demanded angrily. He had no basis to demand anything, but he did so none the less. He hated this creature. "She can't fight anymore!"

"All the more reason to kill her while she's down."

Leviathan grit his teeth. "You touch her again and I'll…"

"You'll do what?" Crusader harshly snapped off, yelling so hard that Leviathan was scared into silence. "Bleed aggressively on me? Before you die, you little wretch, you should learn that when Crusader says it will do something, no one tells it not to. To make sure you learn that little lesson, here's a bit of a punishment for your insolence." With that, Crusader raised a hand and pointed it at him.A powerful light began to burn on the end of it, burning violet and powerful again. Leviathan instantly recognized the attack, and fear shot through his soul. "Mort-kelvin."

The searing, powerful beam of energy was fired off again, this time headed straight for Leviathan and Starlet. It moved like a shot, too fast and powerful to guard or dodge it. Leviathan could only gape, staring in shock and terror. Quickly, he racked his brain for something to do, trying to think of anything he could do to avoid it or survive. In moments, he realized he could not hope to dodge it or survive it. What more, he realized in terror that the attack was most likely designed to blast right through him and kill Starlet too. All he could hope to do was toughen himself up and try and guard against it…not to save himself but to try and save Starlet. He began to do so just as it closed in for the kill…

And then, abruptly, the blast shot away from Leviathan and the others at a sharp angle, like a stone skimming against a pond. It struck a rock pile nearby, instantly blowing up the entire pile and sending stones and debris everywhere in a violet blast. However, despite its power and feeling the aftereffects, it was far enough away to ignore fairly well. That was good, for the espers didn't want to be distracted at all now. After cringing from the blast for a moment, they recovered, and now looked and stared in surprise at the newest arrival.

Bahamut had come.

The blue, winged esper stood in front of the group like a shield now, wings partially unfurled and planted hard. He was impassive as stone and powerful looking, stern and hard just as he had been versus Tiamat. Again, he was grimly focused on the situation ahead of him. At least for the moment he was, totally absorbed on the person ahead. The espers gaped at him. Crusader, on its part, still had its hand extended, although it wasn't firing again. It stared at Bahamut, particularly at a plume of smoke coming from Bahamut's foot from where he had kicked the Mort-kelvin away.

Leviathan felt relief and gratitude come flowing into his body. Starlet was still safe. But what more, he was noticing Bahamut's new strength…and was amazed. He didn't know how the esper had managed it, but somehow his power had rocketed upward. The esper's power had far more than quintupled. The new strength radiating off of him outshone anything the other espers had been able to throw at Crusader so far. Even Ashura wouldn't have been a match for Bahamut in his current state. He couldn't understand how this had happened…but right now he didn't care. A glimmer of hope had returned to this hopeless battle.

Bahamut glared hard at Crusader. "How about youfight with someone for a change who can fight back?"

Crusader didn't answer immediately. But then, after a moment, it snorted. "Bahamut…you've decided to come after all. You're as foolish as the rest of your siblings." It slowly lowered its hand and glared at him. "I always saw the most promise in you. You were always the smartest and most adept. And yet now you are going to fight me?"

Leviathan quickly looked to his brother. "Don't listen to it, Bahamut! It's-"

"Crusader, I know." Bahamut calmly answered.

All of the espers looked puzzled in response to that. They stared at Bahamut blankly, but the esper kept his back to them. "How…did you know that?" Ogopogo asked.

"Indeed…" Crusader added, raising a hand to scratch where its chin would be. "You were always a bright boy, but however did you manage to find that out?"

"I was amazed I didn't see it sooner." Bahamut simply answered. "I put two and two together. I kept on sensing your power leaving Ultima Nexus from time to time. But what I didn't ever realize is that your power didn't fade into the evil surrounding the world, it became it once you left our presence. For a while I thought you were simply out of my range, but while I was training by sensing abilities grew gigantically. When I stopped by Ultima Nexus just now and saw you still weren't there, it finally dawned on me that by this point I should have been able to sense you no matter where you went."

Crusader paused after hearing that. But then, the thing uncrossed its arms and clapped slowly in response to Bahamut's statement. "Bravo, Bahamut. Perhaps you do have some wisdom within you. If so, then I hope you use it now to realize how hopeless your odds are of beating me. You should surrender now…and maybe I'll just give you the chance to live by proving your loyalty to me. Otherwise you can die with the rest of them."

Bahamut narrowed his stare in response. "…I won't die."

Crusader chuckled a bit at that. After a moment, it suddenly looked up and past Bahamut, seeming to be more interested with what was behind him. The other espers looked as well, and immediately they saw a flash of fiery flame dance in the sky. It was Phoenix. Immediately, the firebird descended and landed amidst the other espers, touching down lightly but staying behind Bahamut. Shortly after landing, the espers noticed that she wasn't alone. Palad was on her, gripping an animal skull upside down. He immediately jumped off and touched down on the rocks.

"…You shouldn't have come, Palad." Bahamut spoke, without turning around. "This is no place for a human."

Crusader laughed. "Let the little mouse play around. Eventually, I'm going to probably kill his entire race. What matters if he goes first?"

Leviathan only half heard this as Crusader spoke. For as it talked, he heard another sharper voice in his mind, speaking with far more urgency.

The rest of you stay out of this. None of you can fight anymore. I'm going to have to take on Crusader myself.

Leviathan's eyes widened a bit, and he turned his head to Bahamut. He opened his mouth to speak, but then decided better of it, and used his mind instead. Are you crazy, Bahamut? Look what it did to Starlet! And it killed Wyvern! It'll take all of us together to beat it!

It's useless for you all to try and fight it now. I can sense it, and it's mightier than all of you combined. I can understand wanting to help, but I don't think you can help me anymore.Maybe if I'm lucky I can weaken it enough so you can finish it…but I'm not betting on it. You guys need to run. Get as far away from here as possible so I-

Do you really think I'll let them escape?

Now, Bahamut's eyes widened in surprise. So did Leviathan's and Ogopogo's, as they both sensed the incoming message. The voice was monstrous, deep, and malicious. They knew its source immediately, as they stared ahead and focused on Crusader. If the thing could smile through its helmet, it most certainly was at this point.

You little fools. Another miscalculation on your part, I see. You honestly think I didn't know what you've been saying this whole time? All your little plans and endeavors? I can see inside all of your minds now, and now I'm relishing in the fact that I can see pure, unadulterated fear-

Much to Leviathan's surprise, however, as Crusader continued to ramble on to them through its own mental power, a stronger, calmer voice appeared over its own, superseding it and drowning it out.

Don't be too scared, Leviathan. Crusader may have mental ability, but it hasn't mastered it to my level. My guess is that Crusader has had its power for a while now, and that it never bothered to work at it to make it stronger. If that's the case, perhaps I can still beat it in terms of skill. At any rate, it can't hear this right now. I'm feeding it fake thoughts to distract it.

Now here's the thing. Phoenix is here now. She can revive Wyvern. And Palad looks like he brought some of his elixir. Use that to heal up Starlet.

Hearing this, Leviathan interrupted. No…we should save it for you. I can sense your power. You're our only hope…

Starlet needs the elixir more than me. She might be dead soon, and with Crusader no longer helping us we don't know how to heal people. Now...I guessCrusader isn't going to let you guys run away, so take cover and stay out of the fight at all costs. Once Wyvern is revived, he's going to be wanting to fight back, but don't let him. At this point he could never beat Crusader, and he'd just get in the way of our fight. I also noticed how you're protecting Starlet. Once she's revived, you should do that to Palad. One stray shot in this coming battle could kill him.

But what about you? Can you handle Crusader?

Heh…handle is far too light a term. More like can I manage to stop it before it beats me to death. Your sensing ability is good. What do you see?

…Not much. The two of you are so high that it's hard to tell you apart.

Well, my own ability shows that Crusader at least has some edge on me, and how much I don't know.

And you're going to fight anyway?

Do we have a choice?

Leviathan didn't answer that, for he already knew the answer. He swallowed hard.

…Bahamut.

Yes?

…I'm sorry about the pond…back when we were kids.

…Thanks.

Don't you dare lose.

Crusader grinned again and put its arms to its sides. "Alright, enough time wasted. Make your move."

Bahamut stared back in response, but uncrossed his arms. He tightened his jaw and zeroed in on Crusader, making sure to keep his thoughts concealed so it wouldn't see him move. Crusader tightened its own meaty fists, cracking the knuckles. The thing looked hard and unstoppable, an irresistable mountain of a creature, and it looked back menacingly to Bahamut. None of the others moved. Leviathan didn't even give the directions to Phoenix and Palad, and neither of them did anything either. A gust of wind went by, whipping up dust. The Crystal shimmered, the trophy that would go to the victor to decide the fate of the Planet.

At last, they took off. Leaping into the air like geyser eruptions, both beings shot into the sky. They shot up a hundred feet into the sky before meeting each other, and Crusader was first. The thing swung a powerful fist at Bahamut, so strong that the force was felt by the people on the ground. Bahamut quickly ducked it, and answered back with a kick, also so strong that the espers felt its impact below. Crusader dodged this, spun around, and tried to smash Bahamut in the face with its other fist. Bahamut performed a mid-air flip, and answered back with his tail. Crusader dodged over this and fought back. This continued for a few moments. Both powerful creatures unleashed their might on each other, but for all their blows did nothing. Both kept up with dodging and answering back. Their force was so tremendous that clouds of dust began to billow up and gather beneath them, rising up higher and stronger. But neither of them gave an inch as they continued to try and hit the other.

At last, Crusader's fist connected with Bahamut's face. The beast's jaw and neck were snapped violently around, and even as Crusader continued to smash into him it's eyes flashed wicked glee. Yet that glee quickly disappeared as Bahamut, who went limp initially, suddenly sprung back to life, spun around, and jammed his knee hard into Crusader's stomach. Both blows sounded like thunder, crashing through the sky loudly. Crusader, on its part, appeared shocked that Bahamut had actually been able to hit it with a blow that felt significant. But Bahamut didn't give up. He quickly pulled back, flipped over, and slapped Crusader hard in the face with his tail, sending the beast flying back a bit as its head snapped up and it flailed out. Bahamut pulled back, and then shot forward to deliver another blow. But as he did, Crusader suddenly came to life itself, and recoved to smash its boot-like foot right in Bahamut's face. Blood flew out of his nose and the esper went flying backward. This force was so strong that Bahamut shot back as if he had been thrown that way, and looked too bent out of shape to answer back.

But Bahamut didn't give up. As he sailed away from Crusader, the thing laughing at him in mid-air, he suddenly came back to life. He aimed his bleeding head in the direction he was flying, and belted out, "Pyrin!"A blast of burning hot energy erupted from his mouth and flew through the sky, away toward the horizon. But the force of the unbraced attack caused the esper to suddenly stop and change directions, heading back toward Crusader. He reorientated himself so that he went headfirst, and focused on the beast. As for Crusader, it merely chortled, and prepared to pound Bahamut the moment he returned. But as he did so, Bahamut opened his mouth again, revealing more deadly yellow energy. "Pyrin!"

Immediately, another burning ball of power erupted from his mouth and sailed straight for the fiend before him. Seeing its power, Crusader's confidence turned to shock, and it quickly pointed a hand at the incoming ball. "Mort-kelvin!"

Crusader's own purple beam of energy erupted from its hand and went right for the Pyrin. It was nearly too late, but about twenty feet away its attack intercepted Bahamut's, and both erupted into a multi-colored, gigantic explosion of heat and vapor. A huge boom rocked the battlefield and ground below, and Crusader quickly shielded itself from the blast of heat and energy as it came over it. But even as it crossed its arms before it, the clouds of flame and energy parted, and rushing out of it, still at top speed, was none other than Bahamut, reeling his fist back and going right for Crusader. The attack had been a diversion. The monster realized too late, and soon found itself ripped backwards as Bahamut's fist struck it in the head with all its might plus the might of the Pyrin attack. Crusader was ripped out of the sky and sent flying to the ground from the power of the thunderous blow.

Bahamut pressed his advantage and immediately took off after Crusader, but the strength of his hit proved too much even for his new speed. Crusader continued to shoot the ground, and try as he could Bahamut couldn't catch up immediately. At last, Crusader reached the ground, connected, and began to slide against the rocky mountain terrain as it slid against it. Bahamut quickly closed in, feet outstretched, to deliver a kick to the thing.

But abruptly, Crusader sprang back to life, flipped over while tumbling on the ground, and landed back on its feet. Once there, as Bahamut continued to close in on it, Crusader planted its feet, stuck both of its open palms together, aimed at Bahamut, and then announced a new attack. "Dark Matter."

Immediately, a triangle formed within Crusader's palms, and began to rotate and tumble over itself. Bahamut continued to come in, and nearly struck Crusader before the attack went off. But the thing quickly leapt backward, soaring out of the way, and kept its palms aimed right at Bahamut as the esper struck the ground with his feet instead. The triangle left Crusader's palm, and quickly grew to a gigantic size. It continued to tumble over itself as it grew. The inside of it was perfectly black, so black that it seemed to drain the light from the sky. Indeed, it looked as if white streaks of light were streaming toward the heart of the triangle. It built speed as well as size, and sailed straight at Bahamut. The attack happened so fast that he didn't have time to react. He only stared as the giant triangle struck him.

It looked as if something overwhelming heavy and dense had struck Bahamut throughout his entire body. His whole frame shook and shuddered, and as he vibrated from the blow his entire body became enveloped in black energy, with only his faint outline shining out in white color. The force was tremendous, and Bahamut was ripped off the ground and instantly cast skyward. Crusader chortled at this, and then immediately took off after him. Despite how fast Bahamut was moving, Crusader shot right by him and took a new position over him, adjacent to the path he was taking from the blow. Crusader grunted, crossed its arms in front of it for a moment, made some sort of gesture, and then pointed both arms at Bahamut. "Pale Rider!" It exclaimed victoriously.

The attack moved similar to Phoenix's. Only this time, a great white helmeted warrior of energy gathered around Crusader in the shape of an aura, and then shot off toward Bahamut. In truth, it looked almost wraith-like. Were any of the espers close to it, they would have noticed that in addition to containing incredible attack power, the attack also made one feel cold and sick to be around. The closer it got to them, the sicker, dizzier, and colder they felt…it was as if it sucked the life out of them. And now, the white apparition sailed straight for Bahamut, and connected with him as he sailed by.

A bright white explosion of white energy went off, and Bahamut was lost in the cloud. But after a moment, he was shooting back to the ground like a stone from the force of the blast. The white aura totally enveloped him and whipped around him as if it had become clothing. It continued to suck away at his life and energy as it did so, while at the same time driving him down closer and closer to a fatal impact. Bahamut looked as lifeless as a rag as he fell. At last, he connected. A terrific eruption went off as he did. A tower of dust and smoke came up from the ground, and huge boulders and rocks were thrown everywhere from the place of impact. The world quaked, and the sky rocked like thunder from the power of Bahamut's impact into the ground.

Crusader continued to laugh slightly as it looked down to survey the wreckage. The other espers, horrified anew at what had happened, looked anxiously as well. Crusader chuckled darkly at the thought of what the espers would soon see. Pale Rider was no ordinary attack. It was a curse. Crusader itself had watched an entire human nation reduced to pale, shriveled, dried out corpses by it. The thing could only imagine what had happened to Bahamut, assuming the impact simply didn't kill him. The smoke slowly cleared from the eruption. The rocks slowly settled, although small ones continued to slowly clatter to the ground.Crusader watched closely, looking for signs of anything. But as the smoke cleared, all it could see was a hole smashed into the rock that was where Bahamut had gone in. It struggled to look closer, waiting for the smoke to clear more to see more, but for the time being it only saw the hole…

"Pyron!"

Crusader gaped and shot back a moment. It recognized the voice, and immediately the impossibility rang through his mind. There was no way that Bahamut could have survived the attack. Even if he could, his energy would have been gone. There would have been no room left for a Pyron. And yet it heard the attack, and soon heard an eruption of rocks and dirt once again, as well as a horrible cry of thunder in the air, as the massive attack ripped out of the ground and came for it.

Yet Crusader was confused. It didn't see anything at the site of impact. That was when it realized it wasn't coming from there…it was coming from right under it. Bahamut, it realized, must have moved underground before firing it off. The thing looked down, and sure enough the Pyron was already almost on top of it. Sneering angrily, it quickly shot to one side, out of the way. Deadly balls of burning energy ripped past the thing, shooting up into the sky with blazing trails of light and energy behind them. The thing felt the sheer power radiating off the attack, and was amazed…

But not nearly as amazed as when Bahamut's foot suddenly snapped its helmet in one direction.

As Crusader was smacked out of the air and carried one way through it again, it cursed Bahamut mentally. The esper had pulled a trick on him, using the Pyron as a diversion from underground, then coming out of the original blast point to hit it in the face. Snarling again, Crusader quickly halted itself in mid-air, and turned and faced Bahamut angrily. It put itself into a ready stance, and began to wonder why he had not used another Pyron if he could generate it so quickly. Why had he wasted the move?

But as it hovered there…still hearing the roaring sound…and realizing that it was getting closer…it realized that Bahamut hadn't wasted the move. Bahamut was making a gesture with his arms, and pointing downward with them…

Immediately, the original Pyron smashed into Crusader's back, gathered in full, and then erupted.

As Crusader yelled in rage as the Pyron went off, covering him with giant, burning, explosions, the fiend realized that Bahamut had learned how to manipulate attacks in mid-air. He had managed to spin the Pyron around and hit it from behind. Understandably, it was enraged. That was yet another time Bahamut had duped it and had humilated it in the process. And yet, at the same time…the attack that went through didn't do much in the way of damage to Crusader. It burned and hurted, but all the deadly explosions didn't do one bit of serious damage to him. More than anything, it was angered as it was roasted in the flames of the Pyron explosion.

The explosion finally died. The fires blew away, the smoke dissipated, and the roar from the blast faded. Crusader now hovered in mid-air looking enraged. Its entire body was smoldering, its back was scored and burnt, and in general it was not in a good mood at all. It glared angrily at Bahamut and grit its teeth.

"Little nothing…you have no idea what you started."

Starlet, fully recovered now, stared hard at the battle herself. In reality, after hearing all Leviathan had done for her, she was rather embarassed and wanted to thank him. But he was already staring at the battle and watching closely, and she followed suit. The others were staring on as well, Palad included. Phoenix was the only one not doing so, she had enveloped Wyvern, and was beginning to turn her fire on to revive him.

"I didn't think anything was higher than my Ashura transformation…" Starlet exhaled. "This is amazing…"

"Can you revert into that form again?" Odin suddenly spoke up. "If Bahamut falls, we'll need it."

Starlet ruefully frowned in reply, and turned her head to Odin remorsefully. "I'm afraid I can't. Even after that elixir, I can't pull it off. I won't be able to for another ten days. Besides…I don't think it would really help now. That thing is too powerful. It beat me before, and it's gotten much stronger since then."

"Well…Bahamut can win, right?" Palad suddenly ventured.

"W-W-Well…" Ogopogo quivered, trying to muster up enough bravery to speak. "They're both immense in strength…I..I can't really see a difference in them yet."

"I can." Odin gruffly answered. "I hope Bahamut's just playing around out there, because Crusader seems to be landing a lot more hits on him. At least he seems as durable as Crusader…"

Abruptly, Leviathan snapped his head around. The espers looked to him, and were amazed at the sight. The esper looked terrified, his eyes full of shock. For a moment, they thought it meant the worse, that he had seen Bahamut was failing. But no, it was directed behind them. "Phoenix, no!" He cried.

The others quickly looked around. As they did, they saw Phoenix's flame die out that had enveloped her and Wyvern. As before, the great firebird went down, only this time she dropped like a stone without any grace whatsoever. Wyvern fell with her, of course, only this time as he was falling into a squat, he snored/grunted, and wrinkled his nose. While Phoenix fell all the way to the ground, he spread out his arms and caught himself before falling the whole way. He shook his head, as if dusty, and then began to rise up again. He looked well, the others noticed. The hole in his stomach was gone, and he appeared strong and healthy again. But as Starlet sensed him…she realized he seemed too strong. Palad was drained before when he was revived. Then, as she sensed on…she suddenly realized that while Wyvern looked fine, Phoenix was not. Her energy had almost fallen to zero.

"Phoenix!" She exclaimed. Immediately, she rushed over to her sister's side and bent down. She quickly checked her vital signs, seeing how she was doing. To her horror, Phoenix's heart was barely beating, her breathing had all but ceased, and she had grown very pale and cold. "Oh no…" She uttered.

Palad saw this, and his own eyes filled with fear. "Phoenix!" He exclaimed, quickly rushing over to her. He went to her side, braced himself underneath her head, and struggled to raise her. "Get up! Get up!" He encouraged. His failure to elicit a response made him even more terror-stricken. "What happened to you?"

Ogopogo watched this along with the others, and swallowed hard. "You…do you think…that last revival was too much for her?"

"No, I know why."

The espers immediately turned in a flash to who was speaking, all except Wyvern, who's eyes were blinking and was still shaking his head. But the others all focused solely on Leviathan, who looked grim and serious.

"I picked up in her mind what she planned to do." He spoke with a sigh. "She knew that Wyvern was one of the strongest ones among us, and she felt it was better if she revived him at full strength. But like she said before, she had to nearly kill herself to do it. She's drained her body totally dry of energy and life. I don't know how long it'll take her to recover from this."

Starlet and Palad looked worried at that. They turned and immediately began to look back to their fallen friend. Ogopogo likewise swallowed, for he realized what this meant. None of them could be revived in this battle if Crusader decided to start killing them one at a time. Odin sighed and shook his head at Phoenix, thinking her sacrifice was foolish, and Leviathan likewise bowed his head toward her, thinking instead that her effort was valiant. After a moment, however, Wyvern, now recovered, looked around at them, shook his head, and spoke up.

"What're you all talking about? What revival?" He stated. He looked around a bit more, and then over to the battle site as well, where Bahamut and Crusader were still duking it out. "How did Bahamut get here before me? The last I saw, I was fighting Griever…" He hesitated a moment, but then shrugged. "No matter. I'll go now."

Immediately, Leviathan snapped out of it and put his tail against Wyvern in a halting gesture. Odin also looked up and glared at the esper. "Slow down, hotshot." He grunted. "There's a lot you've got to know about first…"

Again Crusader swung its fist at Bahamut, and again the esper ducked. He tried to counter by punching Crusader in the gut, but the thing dodged and attempted to drop its fist on him. Bahamut dodged this and again tried a kick to the head, but Crusader snapped back, planted its feet on the ground, and swung both its legs up to counter. Bahamut leaned back and managed to dodge the latest blow, and then quickly dove forward to try and punch Crusader in the middle of its back. The thing quickly flipped in the air and just dodged him, and then brought both of its feet down to smash Bahamut down into the ground. The feet connected, and the espers body was soon smashed flat against the stone ground, so hard that the earth shook and rocks crashed. But moments after it happened, Bahamut's tail shot out, seized Crusader's leg, and then jerked it out from under it. The thing sprawled, giving Bahamut the chance to quickly flip up, while at the same time swinging down to smash Crusader into another boulder, smashing it on impact. Crusader, growling in anger, immediately snapped free and swung its opposite leg to smash Bahamut in the face. The esper's head was again snapped back from impact, and it sailed backward away from the thing. Crusader had intended to knock Bahamut a mile away, but the esper again stopped and righted himself, and swung around to plant himself back on the ground a moment later.

The thing hesitated and glared at Bahamut. Blood and bruises covered the esper now, but he was not sweating and only showed signs of minor exhaustion. As for Crusader, it had only a few scoring marks and signs of burns, but it was still angry that Bahamut was able to do even that. It hadn't expected the esper to last this long, and it was astonishing that it somehow managed to keep up.

"You're getting on my nerves." Crusader at last stated.

Bahamut didn't answer. He just continued to glare at the thing, and continued to prepare for his next attack. Crusader sneered. No doubt, he was intending to take whatever Crusader threw at him and use it to his advantage. That's how he had been working so far. In the end, the monster supposed it was going to have to use its brain to beat him, which wasn't that good because it wasn't in its wisdom form. It had much lower intelligence in this body. Despite that, however, it did think of one attack. At the thought of it, it grinned beneath its helmet, and then snapped up a palm and pointed it right at Bahamut.

"Cyclo-petrifica."

Bahamut crossed his arms in front of him and braced for an attack…when none came from the palm. He hesitated for a moment and looked confused, when abruptly the ground around him erupted. Purple and green rings of light suddenly erupted forth from it, casting up more dust and rocks as it did so. Bahamut looked around at the attack, trying to get its nature, when it abruptly moved in. One ring closed around his ankles, locking them together, and another did so around his knees. Another pinned his forearms to his side, and other his rear arms. One clamped around his neck to keep it from moving, and one bound his hands together. Still another adhered his tail to his body while two more collapsed his wings and held them tightly. At last, one clamped his jaws shut, tying around his mouth. The esper looked around in shock, but could no longer move. He realized in fear that within moments his entire body had been immobilized.

Crusader noticed this as well. Laughing darkly, it retracted its hand and began to slowly walk over to the trapped esper. "Enjoying my holding spell, Bahamut?" It mocked. "Your dodging was getting annoying, so I decided to use it. Nothing can break free. You're just a punching bag now." At this point, the monster now stood right next to Bahamut, and towered over him. It raised a fist and began to crack its knuckles. "Or would you like me to demonstrate?"

With that, the monster hooked Bahamut right across the face, sending him flying across the battlefield. Laughing loudly, it quickly shot after him, outstripping him as it ran and reaching his trajectory. As he sailed at it, Crusader kicked upward, knocking Bahamut into the sky at an angle. The blow again sounded like thunder, shaking the ground hard. Again, Crusader shot after Bahamut, and the esper was helpless to do anything. He went ahead of him, and as Bahamut neared he swung both fists down and smashed Bahamut downward. Again, he quickly went ahead, so that as Bahamut arrived he was just in time to shove his shoulder up right into the esper's spine, not only bending him painfully but again sending him upward.

Having finally had enough, Crusader shot up and seized Bahamut by the neck before he could move any further. He held him there, and glared evilly as he watched Bahamut struggle and strain against the energy that binded him. "I take it from the fact that you haven't erupted yet that you realized you can't cast a breath attack without destroying yourself, now that your mouth is clamped shut." He sneered. "And you might as well stop struggling. That attack is using your own power against you. It mimics your own strength and utilitzes it to keep you bound. You'll never escape…until you die."

Bahamut didn't seem to care, but continued to struggle against it. Crusader laughed at this, seeming to think the idea was hilarious. Then, it pulled back its arm, still holding Bahamut firm, and then looked straight up into the sky.

"Now I could kill you here…but I think I have a better idea. I'm going to educate you on the Planet's environment. This entire world is surrounded by an empty void of space, totally free of any oxygen, which you happen to need to live. It also has no pressure in it. Seeing as I have this new mass of power, I think I'll introduce you to that environment by casting you into orbit. Then you'll get a death far worse than what I can give you as your lungs collapse, your eyeballs explode, your blood boils, and finally your body implodes. Enjoy."

With that, Crusader tightened its muscles and grit its teeth. It focused hard on the sky, pulled back a bit more, and then with all of its endless might hurled its arm forward, and as it did threw Bahamut as hard as it possibly could. Going faster thana shooting star, Bahamutsoaredinto the sky, vanishing almost instantly from a body into a dot high in the air.

"And just to make sure I never see you again…" Crusader hissed, and immediately aimed a palm at the sky right where the dot had vanished. "Deen." Again, a stream of purple circles erupted from its hand and sailed straight upward toward the sky. They moved like flash, instantly seeming to form a solid beam in an instant. There was also much more power and might in them this time. They resonated with far more strength as they shot upward into the sky. Soon, they vanished as well into a dot, and then all together. If there was an explosion, none of them could see it. Crusader merely looked skyward and continued to stare, as if seeming to look to see evidence of Bahamut's death, or at least thinking of the misery he had to be in.

"Hey, Crusader."

Crusader's eyes opened wide in surprise at that sudden mention of its name, and then whirled around. It was just in time to catch Bahamut's meaty tail smacking it from underneath the chin as hard as possible, sending the thing flying back. The blow was so strong that pebbles were thrown off the ground a hundred feet below, and dust clouds rippled out from the location. This time, Crusader was so caught off guard that it couldn't recover quickly, and actually went backward a reasonable amount in the sky. It did manage to catch itself, however, and then righted in mid-air. Now, a bit of blood trickled down out from the neck portion of the helmet, looking as if Crusader's mouth bled from that latest blow. Fuming and enraged, it glared ahead of it, to where Bahamut, looking a little toasted and haggard, hovered in the sky in ready position.

The thing was overwhelmed, shocked at what had happened. But Bahamut soon explained. "Your spell was strong, no doubt there. But it was still only capable of processing so much energy to answer back to its user. It could still be worn out in the end no matter how much force it bent back against its victim. I couldn't break out immediately, but after you threw me I waited until I was out of sight, thenI got a few miles of momentum before crashing into you."

Crusader glared furiously at him. It paused a moment, as did Bahamut, but in the end it made a spitting noise at him. "You think you're so strong, don't you? I suppose you think you're outclassing me. You're thinking you can play with me and make a fool of me before going in for the kill. Well, enough playing around.Enough with this dodging around and gimicks. Come at me with all you have. Then I'll show you properly how far you still have to come."

Bahamut hovered for a moment longer, looking sternly at Crusader. He didn't answer or show any emotion. But in the end, he finally shrugged. "Fine." He stated, without showing any emotion. And with that, he immediately stopped hovering and let himself drop back to the ground. Crusader glared at him and watched him, before crossing its own arms and then falling down after the esper. After a few moments, Bahamut touched down. Crusader soon settled as well, and both were on the cracked, rocky field, about a quarter of a mile away from the Crystal and the other espers.

Bahamut cracked his neck and knuckles. Crusader, getting its arrogance back, snorted at him and waited patiently, expecting his first move. After Bahamut rotated his shoulders a few times, he planted his feet on the ground and put his arms at his sides. Then, he closed his eyes, and he began to summon his strength. Soon, a yellow aura began to shine around him. The sky began to turn dark, and the ground rumbled and quaked from the power. He was summoning quite an amount of force. Crusader was intrigued by it, but knew it wouldn't be enough. It would take more than this attack to defeat it. If Bahamut was planning on blasting it, it would shrug it off and then move in to kill him. And so it waited, even as the ground shook more, the air grew charged, and more and more power went into the attack. Bahamut himself seemed to sweat and strain beneath it, to contain its power. But at last, he opened his eyes, and Crusader knew the attack was coming. It braced itself and readied for the move. Bahamut opened his own mouth wide, revealing his blazing throat.

"Pyron!"

Crusader expected the attack to come straight at it…but instead, Bahamut immediately aimed his mouth to the ground. Moments later, giant, blazing balls of deadly energy erupted from his mouth. They thundered forth from it, one after another with blazing speed, so strong that they looked like they would snap Bahamut's head off, but continued to come forth none the less. Crusader could feel their deadly power, and yet not one was aimed at it. At last, the final ball erupted from its mouth and went into the ground. Like the others, each one had not exploded against the ground, but had rather plowed through the rocks and dirt and buried itself in it. A considerable dust cloud was going, and from that cloud Bahamut ended his attack, and then took off and shot straight for Crusader.

The thing grinned beneath its helmet. "Fool!" It spat. It knew what this was. Bahamut would try to fake it, pretending to charge while really moving in the Pyron from behind to attack it like before. But Crusader wouldn't go for it. It would smack Bahamut out of the sky, and then dodge his little attack. Strong as it was, it wasn't going to try and take this one. Bahamut sailed closer and closer, seeming to beeline straight at the monster. Crusader merely braced a fist, waiting for the move to come, patiently standing there. At last, Bahamut was in range, and, as expected, halted in mid-air and brushed back. But it wouldn't save him. Crusader grinned and immediately swung its fist right at his head…

…and instead found its hand painfully smacked back. Just as it was about to hit Bahamut, one of the balls from the Pyron erupted from the ground and smacked against Crusader's hand. It had enough power to smack the blow away entirely. Crusader was surprised at this…until three more balls erupted from the ground, and one by one smacked against the back of it. Each one felt like a moderate blow from Bahamut. Two smacked against its back, before another hit the back of its head. Eyes burning with rage, the thing snapped around to deflect any more hits. That was a mistake, for now Bahamut was open to finish shooting in, and pounding Crusader as hard as he could in one of the kidneys.

The thing let out a gag of pain, and then spun around viciously with a roundhouse kick to take Bahamut's head off. Instead, it only connected with another one of the Pyron orbs, knocking it away again. Two more shot out of the ground, and either one hit its head from below on either side, smacking the thing left and right with the power. The force dazzled it, giving Bahamut enough time to punch three more times into its stomach. The thing let out blasts of foul air each time it was hit, but was even more angry at the end and swung both its fists down to pound Bahamut into the dirt. However, the esper snapped back, and all Crusader got was three more orbs hitting it directly under the chin, sending it sprawling upward and bending it backward. Once it was in that position, another orb shot out and smacked it underneath one foot, sending that leg flying into the air. Crusader soon waved dangerously, for now the thing was off balance.

Bahamut quickly leapt into the air and dove downward, smashing both of his feet into the thing's stomach and sending it crashing to the ground. It crumpled around the blow and then was smashed hard into the dirt, leaving a crater in its wake. Roaring in anger, the thing brought both arms up and attempted to smash Bahamut between its two palms like he was a bug. But Bahamut shot back out of the way, and Crusader soon spasmed as three more balls shot out of the ground and pounded him in the spine. Furious at this point, Crusader cried out like thunder, shaking the ground and sky, as it flipped up and landed back on its feet. It charged right for Bahamut, swinging both of its fists. But for both of them, an orb came forth and batted its hands away…first one, then the other. That left Bahamut an opening to shoot forward and smash the crown of his head right into Crusader's forehead. After the impact, the thing went staggering back, and Bahamut quickly shot back as well. He planted his feet back on the ground, then stretched out his palms at Crusader and made a holding gesture.

Crusader soon shook its massive head and recovered, and then looked to Bahamut. It was teeming with anger, but still it paused and waited, looking for him to make the first move. But Bahamut did nothing. He stood there with his palms outstretched and didn't move. The beast hissed. "Well! What are you waiting for?"

However, Crusader's anger quickly faded into surprise as it saw what had happened. The Pyron orbs hadn't exploded against it because Bahamut was still controlling them. Now, they were all around it, surrounding on all sides, making it impossible to escape. For a moment, the monster gasped and looked at the sight. Then, after hesitating, it suddenly began to move, struggling to escape at the last moment…

But it was too late, Bahamut's palms closed and he swung his arms together before Crusader could get a foot off the ground. All of the Pyron balls shot inward, sank into Crusader's body, made the thing glow like a beam of light, and then exploded one after the other.The skyturned dark and dust and rocks were thrown everywhere as another terrific eruption went off. Even the espers, far away, had to shield themselves. The noise was deafening to Bahamut, but he watched the explosions rage and go off one after the other, all contributing to the one giant piercing explosion overall. The fires raged and burned, but finally the Pyron attack was no more, and ceased.

Black smoke began to fill the sky from the blast zone. As the dust cleared,yet another huge crater was revealed to be in the ground, black and smoldering from the blast.It was dug in a few feet…and hovering in the center of it, at the same position in the sky where it had been before, was Crusader. Burns covered the front of the creature now, dotting it all over. Blood oozed from three of them. Apparently, the thing had tried to cross itself before the blast hit with little success. It arms had gotten hurt bad too. It was covered with scoring now, looking blackened and dirty. Its former perfect image was tarnished and blemished now. Blood continued to drip from under its helmet, part of which was dented and actually showed about an inch of bronze skin. The hair was burnt away, giving an acrid smell, and the thing's eyes blazed with rage and anger beneath. It had shut them before, but now they burned with a fury far greater and more vehement than ever. Crusader looked like a thing possessed.

"Damn you…"

"Amazing…" Starlet exhaled.

Wyvern crossed his arms and frowned a bit. He had heard the whole story at this point, including how he had so easily been killed by Crusader in this form, but none the less was feeling angry that he wasn't fighting right now. "Bahamut never bothered to teach me how to do that with the Pyron…" He complained.

"Would you have even listened if he offered, or just run off?" Odin snorted back in response. Wyvern said nothing in reply, just continued to look annoyed as he stared at the battlefield. The other espers were gathered closer, watching the action. Starlet and Palad were staying close to Phoenix. She was beginning to moan and turn now. Starlet felt that was partially due to her. She had noticed something else during their training. When she was nearby, people seemed to have accelerated healing. Now was no exception. Not only was Phoenix beginning to get stronger breathing and heartbeats, but Palad showed no sign of the exhaustion he had earlier. Was thispart ofher latent powers?

Ogopogo frowned a bit himself at the battlefield. "Why didn't Bahamut just fry it with the Mega-pyrin? It was standing right there…"

"No." Odin darkly answered. "It may have been waiting for an attack, but even someone with very low power and sensing ability would see how strong the Megapyrin would be at this point. Crusader never planned to take his first hit. It was going to dodge and counter the moment he did anything. Besides, from what we've seen, the Megapyrin takes too long to charge up. No…Bahamut is fighting a very intelligent battle. He's gaining an upper hand by frustrating his opponent."

"I think he has a bigger upper hand than that." Leviathan added. "I'm sensing their powers closely. Crusader suffered a major drop after that last move. He's nowhere near dead, but if Bahamut keeps fighting wisely then he's got this thing in the bag. Crusader's lower than him now."

Starlet, Ogopogo, and Palad lit up immediately at this. "You mean…we can win? We can actually win?" Starlet asked in hope.

Wyvern frowned again and kicked the dirt. "Dang it…I wanted to finish it…"

"Who cares?" Ogopogo beamed. "Just be glad it'll be dead! We'll be free of Greiver! No more fear or training or anything! We get to chill out from now on!"

On hearing that, Leviathan seemed to have a chord struck within him. A chill went through his body, and he thought of something. "Yes…" He spoke aloud. "We…will be able to do what we want from now on, won't we…" He mused. "Crusader will be gone. No one will be around to tell us what to do anymore."

Wyvern snorted. "Your point?"

But Starlet saw that. She too grew a bit fearful and still looking. "You're right." She stated aloud. "Up until now, Crusader has always told us what to do and how to live our lives. Without her…we'll be on our own. Any growing up we still have to do will have to be by ourselves, and from now on we're the only ones who'll be looking out for us…"

The espers grew silent at this. This was a truth, and one they hadn't really thought of. But with Crusader gone, it would be one they would have to accept and deal with. They were all still at that. They didn't know a lot about themselves or basic life yet. And they had never had to bear the burden of so much self responsibility. They had learned much of it in the past months, but this was a new level all together. Leviathan himself bowed his head and looked worried for a little while. But then, he noticed something else. Out of all of them, Odin didn't look concerned about what they were going to do next. Rather than growing solemn, he continued to watch the battle hard, and his face showed concern.

Leviathan looked to him and spoke up. "What's wrong?"

Odin glared hard at the battlefield ahead. "You said Crusader's getting weaker. After what just happened, its power has to be lowering and it has to be realizing its not doing well as is. If I was it, I'd be attacking wildly just like the fiends did, desperate to prove my superiority. Especially since Crusader has so much more pride. Strange…that it is not…"

Crusader stood still and glared at Bahamut. Murder was in its eyes. Bahamut, for his part, stood back and waited, staying in ready position and expecting any move at any moment. Silence was between the two of them.They both stood still and cold. The wind whipped by again and cast up more dust. The Crystal shimmered anew.

Bahamut couldn't see Crusader's full face of course…but at that moment the thing seemed to smile.

"Well, Bahamut…it seems you alone had a realistic expectation of my power."

Bahamut was a bit puzzled by this answer. It wasn't what he had expected, and he wondered what it was supposed to mean. He showed nothing, however, for the eyes remained blazing death and fury at him, although they now had an undertone of merriment in them too.

"And you prepared accordingly as well." The thing continued. "Indeed. Bravo. However, I still have bad news for you. Perhaps you have been thinking that my anger over these past few minutes has been due to the fact that you thought I was frustrated at losing. I was frustrated, to be sure. You see, you can imagine the scope of my power, and how astonishing it is to see someone actually going toe-to-toe with it. But losing? Oh no, not anywhere close…"

Bahamut glared back sternly. "You're overconfident, Crusader." He simply answered. "Strange. I never saw that kind of negative trait in you before. I'd like to think you only developed it recently, and weren't just masking it the whole time in front of us. I want to at least keep some respect for you. But you're desperately overconfident. If you wouldn't keep trying to destroy me with one attack, you might be doing better."

Crusader seemed to buckle a bit at that. A nerve was struck within it. "Better?" It hissed aloud. "You little bug…you dare to insult me by talking down to me, like I was one of your puny brood?" The thing began to lose its temper again, but then controlled itself. It remembered the line of thinking it was on, and calmed down. "Heh…better, you say." It spoke on more calmly. "Tell me, little Bahamut…what need to I have to be…'better'…when I haven't even used anywhere near my real strength?"

Bahamut's eyes grew a bit at that, but then he quickly calmed down. He snorted at Crusader, not changing his position. "You're not fooling anyone, Crusader." He countered. "I talked to Jadea before you had him killed. You're at the farthest possible limit he predicted. You can't go any higher."

Crusader laughed darkly, deeply, and wickedly at that. Its voice was cold and sharp, biting to the ear, and it pierced Bahamut's flesh to freeze his heart. He grew a bit nervous at that. In truth…he had a very strong conviction inside him that Crusader wasn't lying. In fact, it was he who was hoping desperately that Jadea had been accurate in his predictions. But the thing's laughter boomed loud and long, sounding all over the battlefield, echoing wickedly through the sky and for miles and miles around. It truly did think that Bahamut's statement was funny…more funny than anything else.

"You think some puny little demi-human could even come close to predicting my true strength, idiot!" Crusader mocked in merriment. "Poor little Bahamut…it looks as if you have indeed severely underestimated me as well. I'm currently in my third form…but I have six all together."

"Good lord…" Leviathan echoed, his own body now filling with terror. Petrified, he began to shrink back.

"SIX! That…that monster has six forms!" Ogopogo bellowed. "It…it has to be lying, right? I mean…I can't even think of anything stronger than now!"

"How much stronger can that horror become…?" Starlet exhaled, body breaking out into a cold sweat.

Odin said nothing. Instead, his head bowed…and he began to go deep in thought.

Bahamut's heart had skipped a beat at the news. Had he just imagined that?

"…Six forms?" Bahamut finally answered. "But…you said that you only had three components forming the one whole of your being."

"Don't bother trying to understand, Bahamut." The thing mocked condescendingly. "You don't have to anyway. You'll never live to see even my fourth form, and neither will your brothers and sisters. I don't have to change into any of them to finish you. My power form is more than sufficient to beat you without trying."

Bahamut felt fresh terror inside him at what had been said, but he managed to get his bearings back a little on hearing that. "Again with your overconfidence." Bahamut responded. "You've been trying pretty hard since we started."

The thing's eyes filled with malice.

"Silly, silly boy…that's because I've only been using half my strength."

Bahamut's heart skipped another beat, and his jaw loosened as his eyes grew wide. But before he could dispute any longer, Crusader crossed its arms before it, balled its hands into fists, and spoke a single word. "Omni."

Immediately, the ground cracked and fractured at the thing's feet. Rocks and dirt were thrown up around it as its own aura grew and solidified to surround it. The thing shone brightly and radiantly now, as it released all of the power it had been holding back. The ground shook violently, and soon Bahamut was stumbling to try and stay upright in one spot. The sky grew dark for a moment as the sun seemed to dim, and the clouds seemed to be blown farther and farther away from the center of the area. Crusader focused on the ground as its eyes cracked. Its muscles bulged and swelled, adding another fifty percent in size at least to each of them, and growing to the point of making the thing look like a malformed hulk. It looked more like an oversized, lesser creature now than man shaped, but its aura blazed more strongly than ever, and Bahamut could feel the new power radiate through it. Electricity crackled through the air, becoming thunder now. But in the end, it broke off along with the quake. But the thing's new form remained along with the yellow aura surrounding it. The dust on the ground seemed to be blown away from the thing's new might.

Bahamut stood staring in horror, and rightly so. The thing's new strength far transcended even Jadea's worst predictions. It was a monster beyond any of his wildest dreams. And Bahamut knew full well what the others didn't sense…that the entire time he had been the weaker of the two of them. Before, his intelligence had made the advantage. But no advantage would save him from this new monstrosity.

The thing stepped forward, its foot sinking into the ground as if it was soupy mud rather than solid rock. Bahamut shrank back a step at that, and the thing laughed at this, thinking it wonderful. "This is the true power of my power form. Honestly, that last state would have been fairly pathetic if that was what all my power could do. This is enough to easily finish you. But seeing as you'll never see my sixth most powerful form, I'll fill you in on it. Strong as I am now…my ultimate power is over three times as strong as this."

Bahamut's forehead broke out into a sweat. His body began to tremble. The thing laughed again, harder and more menacing than ever. "Do you see now, little Bahamut? Do you see how hopeless it was for all of you to ever raise a hand against me? Do you see the true gap between your mortal powers, and the godlike powers I possess?" It hesitated a moment, then laughed again. "Or do you desire more education?"

BAM

The ground heaved and fractured around Bahamut, large pieces of it flying in the air. His own body went flying violently backward, nearly tumbling over itself. That was what Bahamut first realized. He had seen Crusader standing there, then suddenly found himself flying. But moments later, a horrible pain rushed into his face as the air from the blow rushed together to make a thunderclap. His head felt like jelly from the first blow, and several of his teeth felt loose. But that was nothing, for Crusader soon outshot him again, went into his trajectory, and then uppercutted him.

Another clap of thunder went off as Bahamut's entire body wracked with pain. His lifeless bulk went flying straight up into the air like a shot from the latest blow, but Crusader didn't let him go into orbit this time. It outstripped him, and then smashed down both of its fists on his head with all its might. Another clap of thunder went out, and the clouds blew away from their area, as Bahamut went flying to the ground. It felt as if his skull plate had been snapped off and shoved onto his brain, and the entire world faded in and out of a cloud of black with stars of light blinking in it. Horrible pain traveled through his skull, down his spine, and radiated everywhere.

Bahamut somehow managed to right himself, and at the last moment landed on his feet nimbly on the ground. He still depressed it a bit with the force, and he felt even dizzier now that his momentum was arrested. But he had no time to worry about that, for Crusader instantly landed in front of him. Not giving the thing a chance to move, he swiped his tail at it. As he watched his blow move, he saw it reach Crusader…and then cut right through him. Crusader vanished soon afterward. Bahamut realized at that moment that the monster could now move so fast it actually looked as if it was still there before he could land a blow. Shortly after learning that, Bahamut felt a powerful kick in his back bend him into an odd shape before sending him crashing to the ground. He connected with it a moment later, sprawling out everywhere, and dug up rocks and dirt in the process of doing so.

Not wasting a second, Bahamut quickly flipped his body up and swept his tail at Crusader's legs, who now stood calmly with arms crossed and feet planted, hoping to knock the creature down. But again, his tail shot through an image of Crusader's legs, and then they faded. Bahamut then snapped to his feet, and saw that Crusader was now suddenly behind him. Snapping around, he punched at Crusader's head with all his might…to once again hit nothing but the image. The thing appeared to his left, and he struggled to outstrip it by jabbing his elbow at it, but once again he hit nothing. But moments later, a meaty elbow appeared on his opposite side and smashed Bahamut hard in the face, sending two bloody teeth flying from the esper's mouth.

Somehow, despite his head turning and barely recognizing that he was still on the battlefield, Bahamut snapped back and swung a downward hook at Crusader. Yet again, the thing vanished, and this time it reappeared right over Bahamut. The esper knew what to do now. Not wasting a second, it aimed its head, now dripping blood from the nose and mouth, summoned some power, and then exhaled an attack against the ground. "Pyrin!"

The energy ball erupted from its mouth again, and Bahamut was sent upward at an incredible rate, even faster than Crusader had expected. It was only able to hover there with its arms crossed, looking confident. Bahamut extended a fist upward, prepared to give Crusader the biggest uppercut the esper could muster. He soon reached it, and immediately drove his fist upward and into his face as hard as he could possible imagine, causing another thunderclap in the sky.

It was like punching the Planet itself.

Bahamut froze, gaping at the monstrosity. He realized now that Crusader wasn't joking, but still had plenty of power to spare. But what more…he realized his own attacks were useless now. The thing had him outclassed, and he realized in terror that there was no way to win. His fist continued to lay against Crusader's helmet as the creature chuckled.

"I'm afraid your little fight is over, Bahamut. You're nothing more than a wimp like your brothers and sisters now."

With that, Crusader suddenly snapped its arms over and seized one of Bahamut's wings. It immediately tightened its grip, crushing its fists around it and the bony extensions. Of course, they wouldn't give, but Crusader didn't care. Bahamut gaped and watched as he saw his own bones crumple like dead sticks within Crusader's grip. The esper then peeled his head back and screamed in agony. It was a terrible sound, but Crusader didn't seem to mind. He writhed and struggled to break free, but he was powerless in the torture of the monster. But then, Crusader chuckled as it decided to do one better…

The thing raised a giant foot and planted it against Bahamut's writhing body. Somehow in the agony, Bahamut stopped struggling and gaped in growing fear of the new situation. But it was too late. With one mighty tug…Crusader ripped the entire wing off of Bahamut's body.

Crying out in agony, Bahamut collapsed to the ground, one wing flapping uselessly. Blood streamed from his back, and he landed hard and began to writhe in pain. Crusader merely laughed at him, and then raised one arm to its helmet. It used its huge hand to grasp the end of it, and then pulled upward. The mouth of the thing was exposed for a moment…ugly and huge…like a big gaping black hole riddled with gums and teeth in descending circles. And yet it seemed to still crush and chew from about eight different points. The thing crammed Bahamut's severed wing into its mouth, and then began to eat it. Bones and blood dribbled from its mouth, but it continued to crush and chew the wing viciously. Saliva mixed with blood flew everywhere in a gooey mess, but in the end it chewed up the entire wing and swallowed. It then let the helmet conceal its hideous mouth again, and crossed its arms once more to glare down at Bahamut. The esper was still bleeding, but he had calmed down now. One wing was sprawled across the ground as he crouched, looking at the painful wound. Seeing that Crusader was looking at him again, however, Bahamut looked up to Crusader.

"Oh, if you only knew how much better you taste than human meat, Bahamut." It sneered. "But you don't go down so easily… They're small enough so that I can chew them but have them still be alive when I swallow…and I can feel them pounding furiously in my stomach with whatever puny bearings they have left before they die ever so slowly… Perhaps I'll finish you by eating you a piece at a time, although I must say that in order to get the full effect I think I'll leave a few pieces still on your still-conscious skull before I start to eat them…"

Bahamut continued to breathe hard, struggling to contain his pain. He gazed up at the monster hard, despite blood running down his forehead and into his eyes. He didn't move for a long time. It seemed almost as if he had given up and realized the futility. But in the end, he did not. He inhaled sharply, held his breath, and then rose back up to his feet. Crusader expected him to attack again right away, but he did not. Instead, he closed his eyes, bowed his head, and focused again. He did so very hard for a good length of time, longer than it took to generate an attack. His muscles bulged as he focused. Sweat burst on his brow and began to drip. But still he focused, hard and determined.

Crusader expected a breath attack and kept waiting. But then, the thing noticed something else. The blood around Bahamut's wing was beginning to cease.The skin around the wound began to grow out and around to cover it. But before it could go through the motions anymore, Bahamut seemed to reach a peak of some sort. He grunted, and the healing abruptly stopped on his back. Then, his eyes opened, and he gave out a booming cry. As he did, blood and bone suddenly exploded again in all directions as a brand new wing, fully grown and developed, erupted from his closing wound and quickly filled in the last place of the former one. Crusader raised an eyebrow to this. Bahamut didn't react, but panting and looking winded, merely flexed his new wing and began to adjust it to its new environment.

Crusader snorted at last. "So you learned the same trick Leviathan did. It will do you no good. You just delayed the inevitable. Each time you do that you'll lose more of your strength until you can't anymore. You are doomed to lose, Bahamut." The thing paused, then sneered. "Now let's see how much more fight I can knock out of you."

To be continued...

NOTE: What's this? Did I bring an attack from Chrono Trigger into this story?

Not exactly.

"Dark Matter" is supposed to be "Grand Train". However, because trains don't exist yet in this timeline, I had to change the name. And since it looked similar, I thought why not?

See you next time.