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Chapter 2: Ambush in the South
Within a few weeks, the southern half of the world of Weyard was plunged into chaos. Unnatural phenomenon kept occurring all over the place. Everywhere, temperature dropped, irregular winds blew strong, mountains were capped in ice, icebergs began forming at random places out in the southern seas, and the plains and forests were completely frosted over. The areas that were struck particularly hard were the continent of Osenia, southern half of Indra and Gondowan, part of Atteka, and the Apojii Islands. Tundaria, where all the strange happenings seemed to be coming from, wasn't really different, since it was a frozen land to begin with. However, it did have a seemingly permanent aurora surrounding it.
Already, numerous people had begun to take refuge in the northern lands. Many people from Madra, Mikasalla, and Alhafra had packed up and moved towards northern Gondowan and Angara. Those living in the northern half of the world desperately hoped that the situation didn't spread further up.
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Meanwhile, the 8 adepts were still at Vale, contemplating on what actions they should take. The only clue they had was the ancient myth the Wise One had told them a while ago. On top of that, they could feel the balance of the elements being disturbed. Powers of Mercury and Jupiter were raging out of control down south, suppressing Mars and Venus. It was almost like the time when the lighting of Jupiter Lighthouse had thrown off the balance of the elements and caused major problems around the world.
Finally, deciding that the situation could no longer be ignored, they split into two groups. One would head south to Tundaria to investigate what exactly was going on down there, while the rest would wait in Vale to observe the golden orb, which had done nothing be float in the sky motionlessly all this time.
Garet, Ivan, Sheba, and Piers decided to be the ones to head south. The rest, Felix, Isaac, Jenna, and Mia, would stay behind in Vale in case something happens.
"Are you sure you don't want me or Felix going with you?" Isaac asked his red-haired friend worriedly.
"Don't you worry; just because we don't have a Venus Adept doesn't mean its going to kill us." Garet replied cheerfully. "Just keep an eye out here, will ya? We wouldn't want anything to happen to Vale after all that trouble we went through rebuilding it now, do we?"
Isaac sighed, "Alright, just take care, you hear me? You tend to rush in recklessly, you know?"
"Haha, it will be fine Isaac, we'll make sure he stays out of trouble." Ivan said as he passed by the Venus Adept. Piers and Sheba were snickering by the ship.
"Oh shut up, Ivan!" Garet snapped, beat red with indignation.
"Well, we should be going now, see you soon!" Piers jumped aboard his winged ship and prepared to take off. The other 3 adepts joined Isaac wish them luck.
"Don't you dare do anything rash out there Garet!" Jenna waved at the now positively fuming Mars Adept.
"Not you guys too!" Garet bellowed as everyone began laughing.
The next moment, the ship was engulfed in psynergy, and then it rose towards the sky. As the four adepts on board waved good-bye one last time, the ship sailed (soared) away. Isaac turned to face the remaining three adepts, who were a bit surprised to see he had such a grim expression.
"What's wrong?" Mia asked tentatively.
"I don't know... Don't you guys get this... strange feeling? That something bad is going to happen?"
"... now that you mention it, I've been feeling ill at ease recently, ever since that other Sun appeared, as a matter of fact." Felix replied uneasily.
"Oh come on, stop being so negative now! You boys are going to freak me out." Jenna shivered a bit as she glared at her brother.
"Heh, maybe its just that, a feeling, don't let it get to you Isaac." Felix said nonchalantly, although there was a hint of doubt in his voice.
Everyone, except Mia, began to head back to the village. Mia looked up to the sky. The aurora around Tundaria was visible all the way from here. It was almost as if it was another being like the Golden Sun, emitting its own brand of power. She turned to look up at the Sun instead. There is was, the other golden orb, floating right next to it. It was almost an exact replica of the Sun, except for the additional reddish aura encircling it.
"Hey! Mia! Hurry up or you'll be left behind!" Mia heard Jenna calling out to her. Hastily tearing her gaze away from the other orb, she hurried to catch up with the rest.
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The silver orb was floating perfectly still in midst of the fierce blizzard. It was almost as if the blizzard was coming from the small sphere itself. Already, what little life forms that lived near the cold region had either perished in the deadly storm, or fled to the north like the rest.
However, there was one being that hasn't left yet. In fact, this particular man, dressed in thick, brown fur coat, was actually headed towards the silver orb. His name was Max, an aspiring adventurer. He had left his home in Tolbi long ago to journey throughout the world. His latest voyage towards Contigo from Mikasalla was brought to a sudden halt by the abnormal weather. But, instead of turning back, he had changed his course towards Tundaria, his adventurer's spirit burning within him at the prospect of a new discovery.
The storm grew worse as Max got closer to the orb itself. All the clothing and equipment were more or less useless against the biting cold. Determined to get to the bottom of the recent events, he continued to trudge through the snow, which now almost came up to his waist. His whole body was numb and cried for warmth and rest, yet Max still pushed on.
'Brrr, it's FREEZING... Maybe it was a bad idea coming here after all...' Max thought as a huge clump of snow landed right on his head. He cursed as he brushed off the white stuff.
Then, as he was shaking his head to get rid of the snow on his head, he noticed that the air became calm. Looking up, he saw no snow, no blizzard, and no wind. He was standing in the middle of a calm, cool clearing. Right behind him, the wind was howling and the blizzard kept on raging, but it was totally different here. It was just like how the fiercest hurricane was unbelievably quiet in its center, the eye of the hurricane. Pushing back his hood, Max peered into the sky and found what he was looking for. That strange orb!
Carefully, he began to walk closer to it, until he was directly beneath it. For some reason, Max felt a strange, soothing sensation, like when one is lazily floating on the beach. He was so mesmerized by the shimmering sphere that he failed to notice the subtle shift in the air. By the time he realized that the temperature had dropped within this "calm spot" as well, and that for some reason he could not move, it was too late. He stared down at his feet in horror, as thick ice has covered it completely, rooting him to the spot. Max began to flail desperately, to no avail. The ice seemed to slowly creep up his legs, then his torso, then spread to his fingertips. Soon, all Max could move was his head.
"Da-dammit! Someone, someone please help me! Please!"
Then his entire body was encased inside the cold prison.
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"Yo Piers! Can't you fly any smoother than this?" Garet was weakly hanging onto the mast as the ship was violently jerking this way and that.
"This is the best I can do! The turbulence is off the charts here!" Piers managed to bellow as he struggled to maintain control of his flying vessel.
The two young Jupiter Adepts were being tossed about all over the place within the ship's interior. The entire crew was having a pleasant cruise (or flight) despite the cold weather, until this violent storm came seemingly out of nowhere. One moment it was peaceful, then the next it was complete hell!
"It sure feels, ouch, like someone doesn't, gah, want us, argh, going down there!" Ivan barely managed to string the words together as he continuously banged off the walls of his quarters.
"No kidding!" Sheba was hanging on for dear life to the door frame of the room.
All of the sudden the ship stopped moving so abruptly that Ivan crashed right into Sheba with a loud, ugly, "Crack".
Ivan helped Sheba get up as he massaged his forehead, "Ugh, I'm sorry, are you alright Sheba?"
"Owowow... I think I got a few bruises, but other than that I'm fine." Sheba staggered as she got up.
"Ummm, guys? I think you should see this!" They heard Garet's voice echoing down the halls, and made their way out of the cabin, which was quite a chore, thanks to all the stuff that were littered about.
"What is it Garet?" Ivan asked as he climbed over the large table that had somehow landed right in front of the door.
Instead of an answer, both Garet and Piers pointed behind them. Turning around, Ivan and Sheba stood face to face with a gigantic Iceberg. It wasn't just one either. Actually, it looked more like the ship just crashed into a porcupine that's made of ice. The huge iceberg had a round top (which is where the ship was stuck in) with countless spiky ice sticking out of it.
"Er... that's... and interesting looking iceberg." Ivan said weakly.
"Is that really an iceberg at all? It doesn't look... well, it just doesn't look normal." Sheba cautiously examined the fragments of the ice that were scattered about.
"Normal? Normal? I never saw such a thing all my life out in the sea! L-look at my SHIP!" Piers was going hysteric, partly because of the strange ice structure, and partly because his precious ship was currently skewered all over the left side.
"Actually, what's REALLY weird about this is not its shape, it's umm..." Garet scratched his head, not sure whether he should say what he was about to say.
"Well, what is it?" Ivan asked as Sheba was busy consoling Piers, who was almost near tears.
"Eh... I'm not sure about this, but it looked as if, that thing came flying to us, not the other way around."
"Huh?"
"In other words, it came gliding towards our ship and just rammed right into it."
"Wha? Thats just-" Ivan stopped mid-sentence and turned to take a good look at the iceberg thingy again. Now that he thought about it, what Garet was saying made sense. If the ship had crashed into the iceberg, it should be impaled at the front of the ship, not the side. And even if Piers had made a sharp turn, the spikes should've left long gashes along the side. Instead, the spikes were fully embedded into the ship, truly as if the iceberg had been thrown at the ship by something, or someone.
"Huh? Hey! It's land! I guess we're not so unlucky after all!" Sheba indicated beneath them.
Sure enough, there was a white, frigid shore beneath them. Ivan realized that they had reached Tundaria after all. Then again, it should've taken a bit longer to get here. Maybe the storm somehow accelerated the journey? Now feeling completely at unease, Ivan joined the rest of the crew down below. Piers was still rather shaken up, but at least he was getting back to his senses.
More wary now than when they had left Vale a few days ago, the four adepts carefully made their way deeper into the frozen land. The storm was gone now, and the area was completely silent. There was no snow or wind at all. All this did was unnerved the heroes even more. Then Ivan began to feel that something was amiss. He didn't know what, but he felt like he was forgetting something important. Apparently, he wasn't the only one.
"Hey, Ivan, don't you feel like something is... missing?" Sheba whispered quietly.
"You noticed too? Yeah, I'm not sure what, but there is definitely something we overlooked here."
"Whew... If that stupid ball is behind all these mishaps, I'm going to give it a piece of my mind for sure!" Garet grumbled next to them.
Ivan had it!
"Where is that silver orb!" The Jupiter Adepts exclaimed in unison.
Piers looked at the two, and then began searching the sky wildly.
"You're right! Where did it go? It was there when I last looked at this direction back at the ship!"
"Hey never mind that, look at THIS!" Garet was already a bit ahead, and was standing next to something that looked a huge icicle that was growing upside down. There appeared to be something brownish inside it.
"What did you find this time Garet?" Sheba asked, a part of her not wanting to know after all the things that have happened so far.
All three of them gasped. Inside the frigid ice cone, dressed in a brown fur coat, was a man! His frozen expression was filled with terror, and the way his body was positioned suggested that he was thrashing wildly before he was trapped within the ice.
"Is, is he dead?" Sheba asked with an unnaturally high pitch, which made her sound like she was squeaking.
"I, I don't know, but the odds of surviving in this thing are..." Then Piers felt a strange presence nearby. He whirled around, sword drawn, and found another man, this one not encased inside a huge chunk of ice.
The man had long blue hair that cascaded down his back and shoulder and cold, lime-green eyes. He wore white pants, long-sleeved white shirt with a rather elaborate blue clothing over it. It looked similar to the attires of Felix and Alex, a villainous Mercury Adept and the former apprentice of Mia who had failed in his attempt to harness the Golden Sun's power. He also sported a light-blue cape. There was a strange ornament across his forehead, something like the one Piers wore, except there was no long cloth attached to it and it was obviously made of some kind of metal, and had a single round, blue crystal embedded in the middle. His hand was covered by long brown gloves, and he wore snow white boots. He didn't seem to have any weapons on him, by the looks of it.
"Um, excuse me? It isn't safe here, you should head north immediately." Piers spoke tentatively. The stranger merely looked at him with his blank, yet cold, expression. Piers had to suppress a shiver. Something about those eyes gave him the chills.
This time, Garet spoke up, "Hey, did you see what happened to this guy here? Who did this to him?"
The man said nothing, and instead stared at one adept after another. Garet was getting ticked off at being ignored.
"Oy! Did you hear me! I asked you if you know what happened to this guy here!" The Mars Adept bellowed.
Before a certain male Jupiter Adept could scold him for his rudeness, Garet gasped as he stared down at his feet, which was starting to get coated in thick ice. He tried casting Heat Wave at the ice, but his hands were trapped in ice as well before he could do so. The rest of the adepts finally realized that they too, were stuck. The ice was slowly covering up their body. Ivan and Sheba tried casting Wind Slash to break the ice, but for some reason, their psynergy wouldn't work. Something was suppressing their power. Then, with a jolt, Sheba realized what must be going on. Shakily, she turned her gaze towards the stranger, who instead of the blank expression a second ago, was now leering down at her with a cruel smile plastered over his face.
"Tacbyen vun adanhedo... fedreh dryd vnuwah bnecuh..."
The last thing Sheba thought was whether her ears were going crazy, before she was completely engulfed by the frigid trap.
To be continued
(A/N: "Yay! Another chapter finished! Please review and lend some constructive criticisms. Oh, by the way, that language at the end is the Al-Bhed (English version) in Final Fantasy X. You can go to GameFaqs and look it up if you want to!"