So, I'm kind of writing this before I've even posted the first chapter, but I'm sitting alone in my bedroom and waiting for a friend to pick me up for a fun-filled day of adventure. Basically, we're going to be riding around in a hot car for most of the day, but I don't care, because the car is one of my favorite places on Earth.
Anyway, the first one was rather fun to write, and after finally getting it all out onto the screen, the second one kind of immediately picked up and wouldn't go away. So… despite a myriad or absence of reviews, I'm going to write this one and put it up. I hope you guys enjoy…
Oh, yeah, and one other thing: remember in the last introduction when I said that places were the same except for their location? Well, in this, Arkives is on Elicoor II (send me hate mail if you want, it's what was running through my head during Versus Mode) a long ways away from Aquaria. Gemity is an amusement park pretty much like in the original game, but it's set up as all simulation, based on their world. Understand? Okay. I hope. If not… oh, well. You can read anyway.
VersusChapter Two: The Vengeful Master
The maids on the third floor of castle Aquaria jumped in fright as from the floor below came the booming laughter of Master Adray, the warrior Symbologist. Without even speaking, the two maids exchanged and entire conversation:
He's back.
What do you think that means?
What else? We're going to be womanized.
Oh, no! What should we do?
What else? Make a large mess and then clean it up.
Clair, Adray's embarrassed daughter, put her face in her hands as her father let loose another burst of laughter, startling the poor boy who had come to bring them dinner.
"You're a fine, strapping young lad, aren't you, m'boy? Say! What d'you think of my daughter there?"
Clair jerked upwards, afraid of what was coming. She looked the boy in the face and tried to silently communicate with him, but he didn't seem to understand.
"I think she's nice, sir, and she tips."
"HAHA! So, what'd you say if I asked you to marry her?"
"FATHER!" Clair shrieked, standing up and banging her hands on the table. "That's quite enough! I've told you before not to mess with my love life! Gregorius, you may leave," she muttered, barely glancing at the servant boy. He nodded, sat down the tray, and left.
"Clair, I wish you would be more open-minded. He was a fine young man."
"He's twelve!"
"So? In a few more years, he'll be old enough for marriage! I need grandchildren to spoil, y'know!"
Clair sank back into her seat at the finely adorned table in her personal quarters and sighed. "Can we just move on, please? I'd like it if this visit didn't end in me being pleased to see you go."
Adray's sudden change of countenance expressed his hurt, but he quickly changed it back to an almost youthful smile and nodded. "Of course, Clair, dear. What would you like to speak about?"
"Well… you basically know all that's going on with me, here in the castle… So… what about that new teaching job that Her Majesty entrusted to you? How's that going?"
Adray seemed to practically beam with pleasure as the thought of his prized pupil came to mind. "Wonderfully! See, there's this young girl named Sophia Esteed who's amazing with Symbology. And she's only seventeen! She's mastered the Explosion and Deep Freeze symbols already. The one she's most recently learned is Thunder Flare, which she hasn't had a chance to use yet in battle, but I've seen her a couple times before the Battle Simulator broke down against some of the generated enemies. You know it was she who actually broke it? A well-cast Lightning Blast symbol blew the computer out! HAHA!"
Clair listened patiently, unable to prevent the small smile that was working her face, as she listened to her father rant. Almost never had she heard of him speak of a young person so highly; apart from herself, she had heard the names of Peppita Rosetti and Roger Huxley. The mere fact that she even heard these names enough to remember them was astonishing.
"…and so after she cast eight symbols in a row without breaking a sweat, I decided that she should get the Profound Book – Scroll – and that she had the right to try and learn Meteor Swarm. I mean, she's worked a summoning symbol twice already! How much more can I teach her without having to fight?"
Clair frowned. "Father, you know that there are almost limitless symbols (as you call them, but to me they'll always be runes), so you don't have to fight in order to teach. Maybe if you stood back every once in a while and observed the fighting instead of either being a part or initiating one, you'd learn a few things yourself."
It was Adray's turn to frown. "Me? Not fight? That's crazy talk, Clair! You should be ashamed of yourself!"
"Father…"
Neither of them said anything further, deciding to remove the heat cover from the food and eat in silence, Adray growling every time he took a bite across from his dainty-in-appearance daughter. Almost a quarter of a minute of mutual muteness had passed when the sound of heavily thudding footsteps came tearing down their hallway. Adray suddenly perked up and stood at the same time as his daughter, knocking his plate to the floor.
"That'll be Nel," Clair murmured to herself, frowning once again. Her footsteps were unmistakable when she ran in frenzy. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Nel Zelpher threw open Clair's door and burst inside, looking both angry and anxious. She took in Adray's presence for a moment before saying, "Clair! You need to come to the church ruins; someone's been hurt or killed, they're not sure. A young girl. She's been pretty badly injured."
Clair nodded and immediately headed for the door. Adray began to follow, but Nel stopped him as Clair reached the door and turned towards the exit. "No, Uncle Adray, we don't need a lot of people there. There's already a swarm of rubber-neckers that we're trying to get rid of. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask that you stay here."
Adray opened his mouth to speak, but Nel stopped his with a wave of her hand. "No, Uncle Adray! Please! I'm asking you as your niece, not a member of the Aquarian elite."
The old man stood in one spot and glared at Nel, breathing heavily. "All right, fine," he growled in his deep voice, sitting down so heavily at the table once more that the chair cracked. "Go. I'll stay here."
Nel bowed slightly in respect. "Thank you. Why don't you go see the queen? I'm sure she can find something for you to do while you're here."
With that, she took her leave, closing the door abruptly, which brought forth a low growl of indignation from Adray. What was he thinking? He was not going to allow two young girls order him around! He wanted to go and see what was happening; he had the right! After all, it had been he who discovered the cloaked ruins several years before.
He grinned to himself as he picked up his katana. "I never said how long I would wait."
So, quite silently for such a large man, Adray quickly exited Castle Aquaria and stayed a great distance behind Nel as she jogged towards her destination. It wasn't difficult in the slightest to hide, as the streets were packed and the noise a roar. Using this to his advantage, Adray hurried along.
Upon coming across the guards to the gates, Adray slipped each of them two hundred fol with a finger pressed to his lips. They nodded in understanding and acted as if nothing of the sort had ever happened, leaving Adray to continue down the path towards the church.
Nel had been quite right to say that there were a flock of rubber-neckers outside of the doors. They were all jeering and attempting to get inside to see what was happening. Two young Runilogical defense members were fruitlessly attempting to restrain them, one even going so far as to use an Earth Glaive symbol towards the side. It caused a momentary diversion, but nothing enough to succeed.
Adray grinned and gripped his forearm while aiming his hand at the crowd. "Gravitation!" he chuckled, almost losing concentration in his amusement. A ball of shadow descended upon the drove of curious citizens and stopped them from all movement for a moment. Adray used this time to pick through them and enter the double doors to the Ethereal Queen room, the name he himself had given it several years prior upon the discovery of the place.
He approached the smaller crowd inside, this one being comprised of officers of the Runilogical weapons department and professionals. As he drew nearer, he heard snippets of their conversations:
"…her communicator registered his call at three twenty-eight in the evening…"
"…poor girl; I hope she put up a fight…"
"…she was one of the best, I heard…"
"…massive blood loss… but if only we had been a few hours earlier, we might have saved her…"
So far, no one had noticed him, but he saw the backs of Nel and Clair standing together on the outskirts of the crowd and he strode towards them, tapping the two on their backs. They jumped about a foot each, both glaring as they realized that Adray had disobeyed them and followed.
"Uncle Adray! I told you to stay in the castle!" Nel breathed angrily as Clair instructed the other inspectors to resume their work and never mind Adray's presence.
"But I'm a highly-skilled Symbologist, girls! I'm sure I can be of some use!"
They exchanged annoyed glances before nodding to each other. "Fine. See what you can make out…"
They pushed the crowd aside and revealed the massacred body of the girl who was being examined. A pool of dried blood had spread about three feet on either side of her, her once sleek and shiny brown hair matted with the sticky stuff. She had been pretty, Adray told himself, frowning. A shame.
"What do we know so far?"
"She got a call from a Fayt Leingod early this morning. Fortunately, her recorder was turned on and we were able to listen to it. So far, we've identified her as 'Sophia,' but we don't yet have a last name. We've been…"
Nel's voice trailed off into nothingness as blood suddenly began to pound in his ears. Sophia? Sophia? His prized pupil? Perhaps the best Symbologist he had ever seen? No… it couldn't be… say it wasn't true…
"S-Sophia?" he choked. What was this? Tears?
He roughly shoved aside a pair of chattering inspectors, knocking them off of their feet. Slowly, Adray leaned forward and examined her face closer.
The pale and bruised face of Sophia Esteed stared up at him, her eyes still open, looking sad. On the other side, her practice staff lay… the one he had given her after successfully working her first major symbol. Her clothes were saturated with blood, her shirt ripped diagonally, revealing part of her right breast, the small pink edge of the nipple peering out.
"NOOOOOO!" he roared, standing straight up with such a burst of energy that the symbols tattooed on his body glowed and a shockwave sent the inspectors flying backwards. "SOPHIAAAAAA!"
His vision was going blurry, his heart pounding in his throat. What could he do? She couldn't be dead… it wasn't possible…
"RESTORATION!" he screamed, pointing at her lifeless body. A tiny beam of light appeared and enveloped her, but she didn't wake up. The only difference was the closing of her eyes.
"NOOO!" Adray sank to his knees and pounded the floor so hard that the marble underneath his fists cracked. He breathed rapidly, his mind going crazy.
"WHO DID THIS?" he demanded suddenly, facing the panic-stricken crowd. Nel and Clair stood idly in front, looking anxious but resilient. "WHO!"
No one moved.
Roaring in rage, Adray picked up a beefy man in the front by the scruff of his neck, holding him above the crowd. "Who… did… this…!" he hissed.
"Father! Put him down! NOW!"
"Uncle Adray, stop it! Don't make us force you!"
"WHO?"
"Fire Bolt!" Nel cried suddenly, but Adray absorbed the two balls of fire as if they were air. He violently shook the man he had grasped by the throat.
"A… a boy named Fayt Leingod…" he gasped. The name rung a bell. Fayt Leingod… No. Sophia's best friend? He always knew that kid was trouble; always wanting to solve his problems by duking it out in the Battle Simulator. Well… he was in for a fight now, wasn't he?
Adray dropped the man a few feet from his left and promptly snatched Nel's dagger from her hand where she had been preparing to use it if necessary. He immediately bent down and began scratching into the marble floor a symbol.
"Father, what are you doing!" Clair cried, trying to stop him. But the look of pure demon in Adray's eyes was enough to throw her backwards without physical force exerted.
"I'm going to find him and kill him like he killed my poor Sophia."
"Uncle Adray, no! You can't do that!" screamed Nel, attempting to retrieve her dagger. But even as she pulled violently on the hilt of the blade, Adray continued to ignore her and effortlessly finished the symbol. Glaring at the others, he stepped inside and brought the murdering bastard's face to the front of his mind.
"TELEPORTATION!"
A brief tingling sensation erupted around his body and he seemed melt quickly in one spot before suddenly shooting back up in another. A sudden brightness caused his vision to blur, when he realized that the excessive light blue around him meant that he was in Arkives. How had the boy gotten here? This place was farther away from Aquaria in the opposite direction than Airyglyph. Perhaps the boy had run all night and not stopped.
Adray's keen senses began searching for any clue that may have lead to his opponent. Where would a boy go if in hiding from murder?
"Come on, Fayt… where are you?"
It was then that he saw him emerging from the transportation terminal that lead to Gemity. Adray had to exercise full control not to roast the boy with an Explosion symbol at that very moment. Instead, he waited as the boy drew closer, looking highly anxious, to grab his by the back of the neck and lead him to a secluded quarter of Arkives where there were no people or houses.
"You killed Sophia," Adray muttered, his anger suddenly taking over. He charged a symbol tattooed on his arm, Blood Scylla, as he stared deep into the boy's fearful eyes. "Now you shall die. Blood Sy-!''
Adray suddenly found it difficult to speak, as Fayt had produced a sword from his back and thrust it swiftly across Master Adray's throat. The poor man, in his vengeance, had committed the heinous hubris of talking rather than acting. Fayt had used that to his advantage, and now… the talker would pay with his life…
Adray sank to his knees as Fayt backed away, shaking, tears running down his face at the realization of what he had just done. That was two people he had killed now. How long would he be able to hide?
But Adray was not so easily finished, for Fayt had not completely taken away his abilities. Thought it helped, speaking the symbol was not always necessary. So, placing his hand on the ground, Adray activated the symbol on his palm; one of his own creation which he called simply Sirocco, a tribute to the warm desert winds of the same name.
Fayt darted forward to crush the man's hand, but a wall of flame rose up two inches from where he stood and rushed past him, searing his skin from the immense heat. Two, three more waves of flame and Fayt lay on the ground, smoldering. Adray, too, was on the ground, blood pouring from the lethal wound on his throat. Fayt thought him dead, but as his hand began to glow one more time, Fayt mustered enough strength to cry, "Explosion!"
A giant sphere of flame appeared over Adray's weak body and began pelting it with fire from every angle. From the depths of the inferno, Fayt heard only one shriek.
The flames cleared, and all that remained of the Symbology Master was a charred corpse.
Clair and Nel were marching up the streets of Aquios, a plethora of emotions running through them both.
"Where did he go?" Nel demanded from no one in particular. "And why couldn't we use his rune after he did? How did he keep up from even copying it?"
Clair shook her head. "He was the Runology Master, not we. He probably wanted to ensure that we didn't follow him. Don't worry, Nel, it'll be all right. He'll calm down and then come back here. Everything'll be fine."
They walked through the castle to Nel's room in anxious silence. Nel threw open the door and entered, surprised to see a familiar blue-haired woman smiling at her from the chair at Nel's desk.
"Maria? What are you doing here?"
"I've been looking for you all day! I thought you would be off of work by now! I wanted to go to Pessotto Forest and do some extermination. We haven't hunted together in almost a week. Please, Nel? C'mon!"
Nel glanced at Clair, who shrugged. "You need the time to relax. Go. I'll stay here and keep an eye out for Father while you're gone. Don't worry." She parted on those words, closing the door behind her, leaving Nel to her worried thoughts.
"Nel? What's wrong? What's happened to Adray?"
Nel shook her head dismissively. "It's nothing, it's just…" she sighed and reluctantly explained the situation to her friend. Maria, who had known her since early childhood, and who listened better than any person she knew, even if she wasn't able to give sound advice.
"Oh, no… Maria, I'm so sorry… my sister, Peppita, you know, goes to the same school… I wonder if she knew Sophia… I've heard of Fayt before, though… I heard his name from Albel when he came here once looking for work after he was expelled. Something like he had beaten him at the Battle Simulator, or something like that."
Nel shrugged again. "I suppose… Well, there's no use dwelling on it, is there? Uncle Adray, eccentric though he may be, is more than capable of taking care of himself. And he knows better than to kill someone, even if it takes him until sword-point to realize that it's wrong." She paused, staring sadly at the floor, then beamed suddenly at Maria. "C'mon. Let's go have a little bit of fun; we've still got a couple hours left of daylight."
And off they went.
A/N: Well… this one was hardly better than the first, but it's still not unbearable, I suppose. I found this one kind of difficult, even though I hate Adray so much. For one, I never use him (he's still at level eighteen) so I don't know much about his character, other than his attempt to ensure Clair's marriage. But I only know that because of having beaten the game and watched the ending.
So, I suppose… if you wanna tell me any mistakes I've made, I'll do my best to change them, as long as it doesn't involve having to completely rewrite this thing.
Another thing I'd like to apologize for is the lack of sustenance. So, in hopes of being redeemed, here's a small limerick:
There once was a man with a large head
His daughter, he always tried to have wed
He's a stupid, stupid guy
I wish away he would fly
But it doesn't matter much now, 'cause he's dead.
Ten points for guessing whom it's about.
Anyway… you know the usual… please review and make me feel good about my life. Or make me hate it. Of course, making me hate it will probably throw me in a dark corner and force me to cut myself. Do you want me to cut myself? If you do, give me your name and I'll carve it into my arm. It'll be our little bond. If not, I like you better than they guy who wants me to carve his name into my arm. What is he, crazy?