The espers were understandably shocked, and feeling more hopeless by the minute. Already, Odin believed it was over. The Gunge Lance had been their only chance. Now he knew that Crusader would ascend to another form and crush them. Even if he could make another, considering Crusader's growing strength it still wouldn't be enough. As for the others, they gaped and felt weak. Defeat and despair was dwelling on them. They couldn't even escape now. Everything seemed over.
Crusader, for its part, balled its hands into fists again as it continued to hover in the sky. Again, it grit its teeth, and began to focus. The skyturned into a grim gray color even darker than the cloudy sky. Afterward, the clouds seemed to rush in over the opening or at least gather over it. Thunder began to rumble, and small bolts of lightning began toform. The windbecame more forceful, and the charge in the air grew so strong that Starlet began to feel her hair raise up. Rocks, no longer pebbles, began to rise off the ground from the new power, despite Crusader hovering high above them. Again the thing glowed, and almost seemed to burst into gold flame now as the new fires enveloped it. The espers stared in terror, wondering how much more horrible the thing could become.
Slowly, the wounds closed up that were inflicted on Crusader as its power grew. Its helmet smoothed itself out and the metal seeped over to close itself again. All damage was gone, and still the thing focused. Its muscles bulged again. The veins within its skin stuck straight out and seemed ready to rip off its bones. The thing grunted, making a deep sound in its throat. To the espers' confusion, it sounded almost as if it was hacking up. But then something else happened. The neck began to bulge more than the body. It started to practically grow, rising up from the bottom as if something huge was moving from it, far thicker than the diameter of Crusader's head. The thing rocked its head back, and continued to make the deep-throated sound. Despite quivering from all its focusing, it raised a hand to its helmet and pushed back the bucket head. What it revealed wasits horrible, circular mouth, pierced together and seeming to struggle to hold itself closed. Only now its cheeks began to bulge under the stress of the neck. It looked very much like it was going to spit something out.
Then, at that moment, that was just what it did.
The thing opened its gaping mouth, and out tumbled a huge body. It was gray and shining, like with scales or armor, but it slid right out of Crusader's mouth like it was some sort of chute, and landed right in front of the creature. It touched down on mid-air and began to hover. Right after spitting it out, Crusader moved to one side. The thing remained where it was. The espers looked over it a moment, seeing the spikes on it, its own burly body, and noticing one long curved spike alongside its head… At that, they all recognized it immediately.
"That's…its courage form!" Ogopogo yelped.
"What in the world…" Wyvern murmured.
Indeed, now there were two Crusaders in front of them, the power form and the courage form. However, the courage form wasted no time. Soon, it reeled back as well and began to heave too. Its own neck bulged under its armor and the sections of it threatened to break. It raised up quivering hands to its helmet and pulled them aside, revealing a dark, cavernous mouth with no lips but horrid, jagged teeth. It kept heaving and buckling itself for a while as it grew larger, before the thing likewise spat out before it. This time, a golden-haired, golden-armored, flawless woman slid out of its mouth and plopped into the air before it. Right after doing so, it flew over to another side. The woman, on her part, cracked her neck and her knuckles.
"And the wisdom form…" Leviathan mused, looking at the new arrival. Strange how villainous she had become at this point. Leviathan now clearly saw that the same pulsing evil that ran through the other two ran through her. It was typical, because they were one and the same. He almost cursed himself for not seeing it before. Indeed, she would never look fair or kind to him again.
But that didn't change the fact that now there were three Crusaders before them: wisdom, courage, and power. And all three were now acting independently. The courage form readily pulled out the Mortsuken again. The power form cracked its own knuckles again. The wisdom form hovering in front of the other two, arms crossed. A dark chuckle escaped from its lips, and when it did it immediately escaped from the other two as well. They were all talking in perfect unison.
"I told you we were three pieces of one whole." The three Crusaders, or perhaps the single entity that united the Crusaders, spoke. "You were all struggling against one of us. Now you must endure us all. At this point, Bahamut is so weak it would only take our courage form to kill you all, but now any chance you had of victory has been obliterated. We suggest you all mount whatever pitiful strategy you can think of together. Killing you one by one would be too easy now."
The espers didn't know what to do now. Bahamut felt an amazing amount of power radiating off of all of them. He didn't know if they had any options left. At this point, perhaps it would be simpler just to surrender…
"Mount this!"
Bahamut and the others were distracted by this sudden yell, and looked to the source. Abruptly, Wyvern had taken off like a shot straight for the Crusaders. His target this time was the central one, the wisdom form. Bahamut watched the next events closely. He saw that while the power form and the courage form turned and watched him coming, the wisdom form kept her confident smile and didn't move. At first he thought they were expecting this, that they would counter him the moment he got there. But that proved false. The moment Wyvern reached the wisdom form, he hooked her across the face as hard as he could.
To Bahamut's intrigue, the wisdom form promptly had her smile wiped off her face as it turned to jelly. The fiend was knocked out of the sky as if she was another opponent from Wyvern's blow. Seeing that, the other Crusaders turned their looks to anger, and didn't allow Wyvern to enjoy his victory long. The courage form quickly shot forward in front of Wyvern even more quickly, and pounded the esper in the stomach to double him over. That done, he brought both fists down on his neck to send him flying to the ground. A moment later, the esper crashed hard against it, knocking up more rocks and dust and forming a small crater. He groaned as he landed, and only slowly picked himself up.
The wisdom form managed to pull herself back, wiping a trickle of blood from her lip as she did so. "You idiots just don't know when to stop pissing us off, do you!" They all hissed.
However, Bahamut now had an idea. Quickly, he set Leviathan off to one side, and then picked up his own sore body as fast as he could. He quickly sent out a mental message to all the espers.
Guys…Wyvern has just shown me that this might not be as hopeless as it looks. Their combined power is stronger than anything we've encountered yet, but their separate powers are the same as they were in each form. Wyvern was able to give the wisdom form a serious blow, indicating that that one is just as strong as it was before.
I'm weak, but I'll take the courage form. Wyvern, you're good enough to take the wisdom form by yourself. …I don't think all of us combined are strong enough to take the power form, but the rest of you have to try and keep it busy. We have to give it a shot. I know some of you might be scared…but if we give in to fear now any chance of winning we had will be lost.
However, a quick reply went up against that, coming from Leviathan.
What about Phoenix, Bahamut? What about what that thing said? We have to try to do something for her, if it told the truth!
Bahamut hesitated at that. That was a problem. He turned to Phoenix. The firebird was still laying on the ground, looking as weak as before. But that was a moot point. She could either be weakening or still look drained after Wyvern. What if it had told the truth? What if she was dying? What could they do for her now? Crusader hadn't bluffed yet…and if she died… If she died it would be more than losing their ways of reviving themselves. They'd lose their sister…
But in that moment of doubt, Phoenix's voice sounded in their heads.
It…it's alright, everyone. She…he…it…they were bluffing. If you think…I'm in trouble…it's just because…I'm still tired from reviving Wyvern. That attack…it was out of power. It did nothing. Odin's attack had weakened it too much. The rest of you…fight that creature and kill it…
Bahamut had no time to be amazed that Phoenix's own mental power had developed. She risked calling to her. Phoenix…are you sure? Are you sure you feel fine? Nothing different?
Yes. I'm fine.
I don't want to lose you. None of us do. If anything is wrong… We'll try to help. You can't die!
Bahamut…to be perfectly honest…if you all don't stop worrying about me and fight we'll all die.
The others hesitated for a moment longer. They were still unwilling, and Bahamut wondered whether or not Phoenix was telling the truth. But what could they do if she wasn't? She was right, they would all die if they didn't fight back now. Perhaps he would have kept hesitating, but just at that moment, Wyvern suddenly sprung back to life. Giving a yell, he shot up from the ground and straight for the wisdom form again, then proceeded to smash her in the face once more.
The decision was made at that. Quickly, Bahamut took off as well. "Go!" He yelled.
Palad slowly picked himself up from behind a boulder. He groaned a bit and rubbed his head, which still hurt even after being protected by the helmet. His body was bruised now, and as he looked down to his side, he saw something in his thigh. An especially sharp stone had become lodged there. It wasn't deep, but Palad nevertheless made the mistake of lowering his hand and yanking it out. Though nothing vital was hit, it began to bleed badly, and he snapped his head back and howled in pain. His cry was barely heard over the claps of thunder beyond him, where Bahamut, Crusader, and the others were now engaged in battle. He instead lowered his hand and grasped his leg hard, trying to stave off the pain. But even as he did so, he heard a voice.
"Palad…"
The youth forgot about his injury at that, and raised his head in an inquisitive gesture. Shortly in front of him, he saw Phoenix, still laying on the ground from where she was. She looked a bit strained, and seeing her Palad's heart filled with fear. Immediately, he yanked himself over the boulder, wincing a bit as he irritated his bleeding wound, but then ran/hobbled over to the fallen firebird. Once he reached her, he bent down next to her head. Her eyes were closed, and she had a pained expression on her face. But she was alive.
"Phoenix!" He announced. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"Palad…listen to me." The firebird cut off. Her voice was strong and steadfast, if not a little strained. "I want you to do something."
"Sure…sure, Phoenix!" Palad immediately assented. "But are you alright? Can you get up?"
"No…let me lay here…" Phoenix answered.
But on hearing that, Palad thought of what he had heard Griever say. That filled his heart with fear. His eyes grew large, and he felt his insides quiver. "Phoenix…he didn't… You're alright, aren't you? I mean…"
"Palad…do as I say…"
But the boy only began to quiver the more, seeing her like that. It couldn't be. Phoenix couldn't really be dying… His eyes started to fill with tears. His lip trembled.
But at this, Phoenix managed to open her eye. She gazed right at Palad with an unnatural power and force. A ferociousness and vibrance was in her one piercing eye, and she would not yield it. The boy was caught in mid-sob, and froze. "Palad, now is not the time to cry." She stated, for the first time ever refusing to allow Palad to pour out his emotions in front of her. "You must learn a lesson that I am learning myself. No matter how much you want, people you love are going to one day perish. But you must press on, because they love you and they want you to live and continue where they could not. And some times you will have to lay grieving aside for the sake of doing good while you still can. And now is one of those times. In the future, you will have to be brave when others falter. You are going to have to lead many, and this will be demanded of you. But today is the first time it will be required. Palad, right now I need you to do what I say no matter what or no matter what you feel. Can you?"
The boy quivered for a long time. He stared at his friend, and was unable to move. But as she spoke, she encouraged him. He swallowed hard, and managed to raise his hands to his eyes. He thought of his own family and village, and the pain that had befallen them. And he thought of Bahamut and Phoenix and the others, and how they were pressing on to try and help him and the rest of the humans. He wanted to be like them so badly…to be strong as they were and brave against the monsters. But now, he realized exactly what it meant to be courageous in danger. He sniffled once, but then made his own face resolute, and gave Phoenix a nod.
Phoenix closed her eye again, but gave him a smile. "Good boy…" She told him. "Now here's what you must do, odd as it sounds. Strip me."
The boy's sternness vanished and was replaced with puzzlement. "Huh?"
"Pluck as much of my down and pinions as you can manage." The esper answered. "Gather up as much of it as you can, but make sure to get off as much as you can. There's not much time."
"But…why-"
"Palad…just do it."
The boy hesitated a long time after doing so. He looked over her body, and saw all of Phoenix's splendid feathers. He loved the way they looked like living flame. But now, he did not know what she meant by all of this, or what this was supposed to do. He swallowed again, unsure of how to proceed. But he remembered what Phoenix wanted, and finally, he inched his hands up and over to her side. He lowered his hand, and rubbed it along her soft feathers. He had done this a hundred times before. But never had he thought to take them from her. He looked longingly up to her face again, hoping she would reconsider. She did not, and in the end he looked back down to her side. Finally, his trembling fingers grasped a handful of the feathers.
"Jerk hard…or they won't come off…" Phoenix warned, keeping her eyes closed as if in expectation.
Palad swallowed, looked back to the feathers, and trembled. But then, bolstering his courage, he mightily ripped down, and with a horrible sound, yanked a handful of down off of Phoenix's body.
The boy was shocked to see the bare flesh underneath, but more shocked as Phoenix stiffened and grit her beak. She was obviously in pain. The boy recoiled and dropped the down, as if he had just committed a crime. Phoenix held a moment, gasped after doing so, but then managed to relax again.
"More." She stated.
"I…I don't…"
"More!"
Phoenix was ordering him now. Palad trembled and swallowed. But then, he grasped another handful, hesitated, and ripped off another. Again Phoenix buckled, but not as hard this time.
"More." She said between a clenched beak.
Palad was mortified at her pain, and more disgusted at the pale naked flesh beneath. But he obeyed her and grasped another handful, ripping it out again. As he continued, his eyes filled with tears of anguish while Phoenix's eyes filled with tears of agony.
A powerful blow from Crusader's wisdom form smashed Wyvern in the face, but he snapped his head back up soon enough, and swung around to slap her across her own cheek with his tail. This one affected the creature more, but she soon righted herself. Luckily, Wyvern was just in time to punch her across the face in one way, then flip around and punch her again. That was all before he inhaled deeply, focused his power for a moment, and then discharged a Pyrin point-blank in her face. The impact sent the wisdom form flying back, and Wyvern quickly flexed his wings out, and prepared to dive to go after her…
When the courage form's own foot shot through the sky and pounded him in the side of his head. Like a dead leaf on a tree, Wyvern was ripped out of the air and sent hurtling through the sky. The courage form righted itself, but had little time to gloat as the roaring, seething Bahamut shot forward and thrust both of his feet into the small of the armored creature's back. The thing recoiled in pain, but Bahamut wasn't done. Still pushing, the esper shoved the courage form out of the sky and began to send him hurtling to the ground. He kept pushing, while the courage form kept flailing out his arms and legs, until he touched down right on the rock face. Bahamut kept pushing, and drove the courage form's body right into the ground with the power of his legs. He quickly leapt off the moment after doing so, however, for in an instant Crusader flipped back up, and struggled to drive his helmeted head back into the esper. However, he soon swung around, and began to swipe his sword at the dodging esper again, who with great difficulty was able to narrowly escape him…
Ogopogo and Leviathan struggled to hold the power form's arms back. As they did, Odin tore forward and swung Zantetsuken furiously at its helmet. Starlet rushed in and pounded as hard as she could against its body. But the power form merely allowed them to do this. An energy wave around it kept Odin from getting even a scratch in, and it merely allowed Starlet to attack it as much as she wanted. In the end, it simply swung its arms together to smash the heads of Leviathan and Ogopogo together, then held two fingers out to perform another Mort-Kelvin on the two espers assaulting it. One beam tore right through Starlet's shoulder, causing her to cry out and having her fall to the ground. As for Odin, he deflected the beam with his sword, but the power was still so great that he was pushed back to the ground. The power form snickered, and then slowly began to walk after its prey, taking its time with the weaker espers…
Palad was disgusted and nauseated to look at the body of Phoenix now. She had lost almost half of her feathers. Above them, impacts from hits continued to flood below, causing Palad's clothes to whip one way and another and blasting him with rocks. The fight was raging though it wasn't doing too well. However, as Palad finished his latest handful, Phoenix finally spoke up.
"Alright Palad…that's enough…"
The boy gratefully stopped. He looked down at Phoenix's poor body, and wondered why he had to do such a thing. However, he also noticed Phoenix didn't look too well. She was breathing hard now, and sprawled out on the ground weakly. She looked like she could barely move. Seeing this, Palad's eyes filled with concern.
"Phoenix…are you alright?"
"…No, Palad…" Phoenix finally responded, her face beaming a small smile. She spoke weakly, and began to look very tired and frail.
Palad's eyes, however, filled with fear. "Oh no…hang on, Phoenix! I can make more elixir…"
"That…can't save me now…Palad…" Phoenix softly responded. "Nothing can… I'm dying… I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but I needed you and the others to focus on what had to be done…"
Immediately, Palad's eyes filled with tears. His body quivered violently. He seized what he could of Phoenix's neck and shook her violently. "No!" He exclaimed. "No! You can't die! Get up! Get up, Phoenix!"
Phoenix merely smiled at Palad softly even as he tugged on her violently, struggling to get her to rise. Eventually, knowing his effort was worth nothing, Palad fell down at her side and began to sob bitterly. But on seeing that, Phoenix managed to speak further, more slowly than before.
"Palad…don't grieve… I knew…that all of us could die here… This is what I wanted to do. I wanted to die if it would give you a chance at life…my sweet little pet…"
Palad continued to sniffle and sob, but Phoenix managed to raise a wing and place it on Palad's shoulder. The youth looked up and sniffled, staring at her longingly.
"Please…please don't die."
"Take what you've taken from me, Palad…" Phoenix went on. "Use it for your friends and family… Just as I was able to help you before…you can help people now… Even one of my feathers will make a person recover from a fatal wound…"
"B-B-But…some blew away…"
"It's alright…by and by…you or others will find them…"
"Don't go Phoenix… I love you."
"I love you too, Palad… That is why I'm glad I could give this one last gift…" The firebird's eyes began to dim. Her voice was failing. All movement in her body was ceasing, and Palad's shower of tears could do nothing for her. Finally, she rested her head again, and let her wing lay on Palad's shoulder.
"Stay…alive…"
Phoenix exhaled once more…and then never again.
Palad again collapsed on her side and wept bitterly.
A powerful lightning bolt ripped through Odin's frame again. The warrior esper cried out in agony before his smoldering body was once again dropped. Moments later, a bloody, burned Starlet smashed down on top of him, looking like she had been thrown at him. There they lay on the ground, amid the beaten Ogopogo and Leviathan, already unable to move and out of energy to perform any more Aqua-jects.
Wyvern flew opposite Crusader's Wisdom form, panting hard, blood dripping from his mouth, and looking tired. The Wisdom form panted and looked much the same. A bit away from them, Bahamut, one eye beaten shut, two teeth missing, and one of his arms barely working, hovered in front of a much more able and fit-looking Courage form. Unfortunately, his worst fears had proved correct. If he had been at maximum, he would have had a chance. But as it was his power was almost gone. He could only hover there and breathe heavily at the moment.
Yet at that second, the espers in the sky as well as the parts of Crusader froze. Bahamut himself halted, for he felt a passage of energy. He turned his head to the source immediately, his eyes filling with surprise and shock. When he did, his gaze soon rested on Palad, weeping bitterly…over a half-plucked, great firebird. He sensed no life from it. The mental patterns had ceased. Seeing her, however, it took him only a moment to recognize what had happened. His heart sank. A cold knot went into his chest. All the earlier fears from before came back, and his mindwas again filled with terrible, terrible dread.
Crusader's parts and Wyvern looked as well. However, the wicked monster laughed from all three of its mouths darkly.
"I told you it was inevitable."
Phoenix was dead.
For a moment, Bahamut was mortified in horror, unable to do anything but stare at what had happened. Disbelief washed over him again. It was real this time. One of them was dead, and dead for good now. There wouldn't be any coming back. Phoenix, their sister, had gone. She had passed completely now, and had no way of returning. One of them had finally died without a chance of coming back. However, somehow in the midst of that, Bahamut remembered Crusader's earlier words…
Immediately, Bahamut glared at Palad and screamed at him. "Palad! Get away from Phoenix! NOW!"
Palad, eyes still filled with tears, looked up in shock to Bahamut. Perhaps it was his vulnerable state. Perhaps it was because Bahamut was filled with commanding rage that literally shook the rubble around them. But for whatever reason, Palad got up and sprung away from Phoenix. It was just in time too. For at that moment, as Wyvern and Bahamut looked on, and the other espers began to recover to look as well, Phoenix's skin split open. Moments later, molten fire began to drip from the wounds. It was only in a few places at first, but then it quickly moved throughout the rest of the body. The flames, on leaving, quickly ran over the rest of the flesh. They spread and leapt up, creating more fire and more flames. Soon, the entire body was burning. The horrible smell of burning flesh began to arise from the corpse. And over it all, Crusader grinned wickedly and laughed from all three mouths.
Hearing that horrible, merciless laugh…hearing the malice and evil in it…was more than Bahamut's confidence could bear. He had held himself in check so far, but no more. Furiously, he whirled around and glared at Crusader. "You damned bastard!" He cursed…for the first time as passionately as he could remember. "How could you! What kind of monster are you!"
Crusader merely grinned in reply, though they stopped laughing. "Little Bahamut, you haven't seen anything yet. Look again."
Bahamut angrily turned and looked back down, as did the other espers. But to their shock, something new was happening. The flames were dying out. They were fading into smoke and disappearing. What more, what they were burning didn't become ash, but disappeared as well. It all vanished within a matter of moments, and soon there weren't remains or flames left behind. The heat faded, and everything went away until nothing was left laying where Phoenix had been…save one thing.
A rough crystal, covered with rock and seeming to be very crude, remained in the place where Phoenix had been. However, rough as it was, it gleamed powerfully. It shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow, and looked beautiful and precious. I seemed to almost have a life of its own. It sat there and shined on wonderfully, and on looking at it…Bahamut felt his memories of Phoenix ease. For some reason, looking into that shine made him feel like he did whenever he looked at Phoenix in her best moments. It filled him with joy and peace. He could have stared at it for ages…until Crusader's pityless voice broke out.
"That is what remains of an esper after passing, a shard of magicite." The things explained darkly. "All of Phoenix's essence is contained in it. That was another reason we wanted to kill her first. Now that we know of her resurrecting powers, she'll be of much use to us…"
Immediately, Wyvern and Bahamut snapped around to the thing.
"What are you talking about?" Wyvern demanded.
Crusader grinned wickedly. "Magicite contains all the powers of the esper it came from. With her power, we will gain mastery over death and mortality in all forms. Even if there was a being who could ever destroy us, which there isn't, we will surpass that too and become immortal."
Bahamut's eyes bulged in shock.
"What!" Wyvern hissed.
Crusader chuckled. "Little children…the same will soon happen to you. You thought you'd come here to kill us, but in the end you will only make us stronger."
The monster laughed again, chilling Bahamut to the bone…but also filling him with more rage than before. He couldn't believe how many things had gone wrong…how hopeless the situation grew with each second. But he also refused to accept it now. He refused to acknowledge any of it. He couldn't let the beast win now. He couldn't!
"You're a demon and a murderer…" Bahamut fumed, clenching his fists in anger. "I don't care what I have to do…I will kill you today. I was doing it to defend the humans before, but now I'm also doing it to make sure you never desecrate my sister who was worth more than you'll ever be."
Crusader sneered slightly. "Don't dare compare us with that mite, fool." But after saying that, the thing grinned more widely than before. "But just how do you plan to do all this? Your siblings have fallen. The only one left now is your brother Wyvern. But that will end soon."
Wyvern perked up at that. Unfortunately, he still didn't see the power form practically vanish from his position, and suddenly reappear right behind the esper. The reptilian being noticed this, and began to turn around in shock and surprise. But before he could get far, a hand shot out and chopped Wyvern on the side of the neck. A tremendous hitting sound was heard, and the esper gagged and spat out blood in response. His eyes widened and developed an empty look. Then, like a dead fish, he collapsed and fell. His body struck the ground and crumpled into a heap, and moved no more.
Down below, Odin and Starlet had managed to get up, bloody and broken as they were. They rose and stared in shock at the new sight. Hopelessness was filling their eyes as well. Meanwhile, Crusaders three parts gathered together and hovered before Bahamut. They crossed their arms and grinned wickedly.
"Now it is just you and us, Bahamut." The creatures chortled. "No friends left to delay the inevitable. I see you have been thinking about your little Megapyrin for quite a while. Yes, I've been reading your mind rather clearly this whole time. You must see it as your only chance left." Suddenly, their voices turned mockingly concerned. "Well now, how long would it take you to charge it?"
Bahamut glared darkly at the things. Yet in the end, he managed to give a halfhearted smile. "To get it to my most powerful point, I need five minutes."
The beasts smiled and chuckled. "In that case, let's see what you can do in one minute. I might as well have you go out with a bang. This is the only chance I'll ever get to see how much I can endure. Am I not a fair fighter?" The things laughed even more darkly at this.
Leviathan and Ogopogo began to writhe and get up again. However, to Odin it didn't really matter. None of them could do anything. He could only stare hopelessly and wait for the death that was sure to come within moments. Starlet looked at him intently, and then turned and looked to the sky.
"There has to be something…anything we can do!" Starlet insisted. Her own eyes filled with tears of anguish, overwrought at what had happened. "We can't just let Phoenix have died for nothing!"
"There's nothing we can do." Odin flatly responded. "Not even the Gunge Lance could help now. It's all over."
"Thirty seconds, Bahamut."
The serpent espers were up now. They quickly surveyed the situation. They gasped to see that Phoenix was dead. Palad, confused and hurt looking, sat nearby and watched the magicite and everything else. Wyvern was still in a heap. It would take a while for him to recover from an injury like that. As they sat there, however, they saw Palad look around. His eyes eventually saw Wyvern. He hesitated a moment, then, after seeming to think of something, he got up and began to move to Wyvern. None of the espers noticed that much. They were too busy focused on the fight, and their end. Everything seemed over now. They felt as if all was up.
"We're doomed…" Ogopogo whined. "We should run…get as far away as we can…"
Odin fumed in anger inwardly. In his mind, it was very well Ogopogo's fault that they were all going to die. If he had held Crusader, they might have lived. Now all was over. However, he kept a straight voice. "There's nowhere to run. Crusader could annhilate the continent now to destroy us."
"I can't believe it's over…after everything…" Starlet spoke breathlessly.
In the air, Crusader grinned widely. "Times up, Bahamut. Let's see what you've got."
However, Bahamut did nothing immediately. But then, he cracked his strange little smile again. In fact, he even chuckled a little. The Crusaders frowned at this.
"What are you laughing about, insect?"
"Just that your mind reading is a little off." Bahamut calmly answered. "You thought that I was thinking about using my Megapyrin our entire fight. In reality…I've been charging it."
Crusader's six eyes bulged in shock.
The espers gaped.
"No way…" Odin exhaled. "Could he have mastered that much control of his power?"
It seemed so, for at that moment, Bahamut tensed up his whole body and balled his hands into fists. His mouth opened, and revealed a glorious, shining light from within. Orbs of energy shot into it more freely than before. Thunder cracked. A crater gathered at Bahamut's feet. The sky began to turn black, and the power that Bahamut summoned was far beyond anything they had seen yet. The espers shielded themselves, feeling terrible heat and power from the blast. They couldn't withstand it. As for Crusader, they gaped in shock. Immediately, they crossed themselves and braced for the blast. It was too late to run, however. Bahamut abruptly released, and the attack went out.
As before, the deadly wave of powerful exploding balls shot forward. The huge mass of energystruckall Crusaders at once. The light was blinding, even more hot and fiery than before. It tore right through the things, and immediately enveloped them in energy and fire. The huge wave rushed by, and the orbs hit the three one after the other. One by one they all exploded, one after another. Bahamut pushed and strained. His muscles bulged. His eyes enlarged. His neck was ripped back and looked like it would snap. But still he breathed the terrible energy of death, and it only continued to come and pour. The monsters could even be seen anymore. They were bathed in too much energy. The power was simply too great for them to withstand, until at last the biggest explosion of all ripped out, and everything vanished into a cloud of flame.
The espers shielded themselves again as a firestorm raged over their heads. The heat was so powerful that they all began to sweat. Even with eyes closed they could still see fiery red light. It seemed to take forever, but eventually it did fade. And when it did, the fire vanished, and the clear open sky moved in. The cool air returned and flooded the espers. They continued to cringe for a few moments more. But then, they slowly pulled down their hands and arms. They timidly looked up, and looked to see what had happened. Inside, they all prayed and hoped for the best.
When they looked up, they saw Bahamut weakly lowering. The poor esper looked drained of life. His wings barely kept him up enough to let him descend, and the rest of his body was limp and all but lifeless. When he landed, he immediately slumped onto all fours. Sweat poured out from his brow and saturated the ground, and he gagged and breathed hard, struggling to get his breath. Indeed, he had put everything possible into that attack, not to mention had focused hard to be able to keep fighting and absorbing energy for the attack. The result had taxed him to his limits. Every muscle burned. His insides felt on fire. He had to rest.
The espers looked up again, toward where Bahamut had blasted. But all they saw was a cloud of black smoke. It was billowing away and slowly clearing, but it was still taking some time. They prayed and crossed their fingers. If anything had happened…anything at all…even an injury serious enough to make Crusader retreat for now. That would be something. Then maybe there was hope. They could get Bahamut an elixir. They could hide. They could do something…anything…
At last, the smoke did clear. The black plumes vanished, and what was left began to take shape. On seeing it, the espers fearful hearts again turned to ice. Bahamut, weakly looking up from the ground, felt like collapsing.
All three forms were still there.
The attack had been costly, that much was true. The horrible, deformed head of the Power form was visible. It was like a great slab with insane, monstrous red eyes and a leech-like, cavernous mouth. Its helmet had been burned away, and most of its body had sustained third degree burns. It had taken most of the punishment, and looked the least easy about moving. The Courage form wasn't much better. Its body was sizzling from its armor having melted on it, and it looked in terrible pain too. Most of the Wisdom form's clothes were gone. Its eyebrows and front hair were gone too. Combined with the mad look, the Wisdom form finally matched the outside with the wicked inside. They were all burned horribly, bleeding in several spots. But worst of all…they looked positively enraged.
"Damn you…damn you…DAMN YOU!" The monsters bellowed. Their voice was like thunder at the end of the world. The sky actually darkened again with its talking. The air grew charged, and the voice of doom shook the ground horribly. "Damned…insignificant…bastard offspring of this wretched, wretched world…! How dare you…pitiful…pathetic…weaklings…how dare you hurt us! HOW DARE YOU! Damn you! Damn the wretched Planet you were spawned from! We hate you…We hate you…We hate you…WE HATE YOU!"
The things paused, fuming in insidious rage. The things looked more monstrous, terrible, and ferocious than ever now. Until this point, Crusader had only been playing around with them. Now they were genuinely mad. Never before had the espers seen anything so enraged. It terrified them. It filled them with fear and doubt…especially since all that Bahamut's strongest attack had ended up doing was making them madder than ever. Bloodlust was in their eyes and venom was on their lips. Hate fueled them more by the second.
"That does it!" The things spat. "We were willing to be merciful… We were willing to deal with the Planet's miserable little children and rear them as we could…but no more! This insult will never be forgiven! We will never forgive anything on this Planet for spawning such things to insult the greatness of Griever! We will unite and become one! Then, after we have blasted you all into nothingness…and rid the Planet of its miserable human race…" The things inhaled deeply, showing their fathomless loathing.
"…We will destroy the Planet itself!"
To be continued...