Chapter 19: Killzone
"Contact, two hundred meters and closing!" came a shout from one of the soldiers in the trench outside the command center as Rinoa and Zell rushed past. "Enemy tanks, closing in!"
Plasma scorched past them, far over their heads as the Estharian war machines fired ranging shots. Meanwhile, the Dollet and Galbadian soldiers rapidly called out coordinates and orders as they observed the enemy through scopes.
"Targets received! We have tone on missiles! Fire, fire!"
More energy slashed past the trenches, far closer now as the Estharian tanks flew across the white snow, Zako assault vehicles and scout bikes flanking them and assault transports right behind. A near miss melted the snow and ground only a few feet from the trench as the SeeD and Sorceress hurried to their assigned positions, Zell with a platoon of Galbadian troops and Rinoa in the center of the line, where she rapidly began casting defensive spells. As her magic played over the SeeDs and soldiers around her, a hundred dull, bone-shuddering whooshes filled the air, and a hundred missiles erupted from behind the front lines and dove for the enemy vehicles. They slammed into tanks and transports, ripping apart composite armor and blasting the vehicles to pieces, and annihilating infantry and scout vehicles in hellish fireballs. The front line of the Estharian advance was ripped asunder, but they kept advancing, many of the tanks trailing flame or leaking fluids as they belched more energy.
A shining bolt exploded against one of Rinoa's shields, blowing it apart, and another shot struck the trench further down, killing a cluster of soldiers and hurling them into the air. Other energy bolts landed in and around the trenches blasting apart Galbadian, SeeD, and Dollet positions. Immediately, the bombarded troops returned fire, launching rockets, machinegun fire, and tank shells at the attacking enemy, the air instantly filled with an avalanche of roaring sounds and shouts.
The tanks advanced, firing even as they were exploding, their numbers rapidly being replaced by more war machines and assault vehicles. Plasma and energy smashed into the defenders' positions, ripping apart weapon emplacements like sand forts being kicked by children.
Then, at a single shout from Zell, a river of lightning cast by the SeeD forces poured from the trench, rippling into the Estharian advance and tearing apart their vehicles, blasting into tanks and assault transports. Several Guardian Forces billowed or burst into being, adding their destruction to the chaos. The Estharian vehicles turned their fire on the spirits, dozens of tanks pounding the powerful entities, and at least one of them let out an agonized cry before fading away, temporarily incapacitated.
The center of the Estharian force erupted into incandescent annihilation as Rinoa unleashed her magic. Bolts of lightning forked from her fingers, streams of rocketing, exploding icicles, waves of fireballs, stone spikes ripping up from the ground, and more magical weaponry, all assaulted the center of the mechanized assault, utterly destroying the middle of the enemy advance.
Still, the Estharians were fearless, and their tanks and vehicles continued firing even as they plowed into the teeth of the furious defenders. The helicopter force was starting to take off and launch its assault when a concentrated barrage pounded the helipad, melting most of the vehicles and ripping apart the remainder even as they started to ascend. The defenders' air support was completely destroyed. Up and down the trenches, fires were burning at weapons emplacements and medics hurried about, rushing to the wounded as fast as they could. Rinoa rapidly cast her healing spells as her people quickly dropped around her, despite her defenses.
A single shining bolt cut across the battlefield and crashed into a tank position fifty meters behind the main line, and evaporated three tanks, as well as cutting a deep scar across the snow, the ground beneath the ice turned into glass instantly.
A second bolt slammed into one point along the trenches, and fifty men vanished, completely evaporated. A hundred men surrounding the impact pint were also blown away, leaving fire-blackened skeletons surrounding the location of the hit.
Four more bolts struck around the trenches, one striking Rinoa's position and bouncing off her shields, completely burning them out and slamming into the snow. A wall of wild, white mist arose around the defenders' trenches as the tanks advanced, firing as they came, and wild return fire beat them back.
"Those damn walkers again!" Zell shouted over the chaos as he blasted a scout bike with a lightning bolt, watching its driver fly away from the impact. There was an intense roar overhead, and fire bloomed across the battlefield, long-range cruise missiles arriving and blowing apart the middle of the enemy advance, annihilating dozens of vehicles and throwing up more fog and mist, obscuring the battlefield.
Golden light ripped past, as the walkers fired again, their shots unerring despite the white fog, and a half dozen hits were scored along the trench, hundreds of men falling.
A hand grabbed Zell's shoulder, and he turned, to see Randolph beside him, face red from partial burns. Beyond the General, the command bunker was a scorched mess of molten instacrete.
"We can't hold!" Randolph shouted, and Zell shook his head.
"We have to!"
As if to refute him, a beam ripped past and tore off the top half of a Galbadian soldier ten feet away.
"We have to retreat!" Randolph added. "We can't repel firepower of the magnitude!"
A Zako drew close to their position, firing wildly, and no less than fifteen men, including Randolph and Zell, pivoted to blast it apart with magic and rockets.
"How much time does Trabia Garden need?" Zell asked, and Randolph shook his head.
"As much as we can give them," he said grimly. "But we can't hold under this kind of bombardment!"
"Then we have to stop the walkers!" Zell replied. "We have to get out there and take them out!"
Randolph paused for a moment, and then nodded. He pressed a finger to his ear, checking his radio.
"Third Mechanized, you still intact?" he shouted, and there was a reply over the radio. "Get ready, SeeDs are coming to your position! We have a job for you! They'll explain!"
"Explain what?" Zell asked as a missile exploded far too close for comfort.
"Zell, you take Rinoa and whatever you need," Randolph stated, staring into the brawler's eyes. "Get out there to those walkers, kill anything Estharian that gets in your way, and blow those giant sons of bitches to hell."
Four hundred men and women were assembled in the corridor leading toward the doorway connecting Iceblood Prison's Undercity with the upper facilities. The prisoners, clad in furs, coats, and other warm clothing and armed with an array of weapons ranging from plasma rifles and firearms to clubs and crude metal spears, stood ready for combat. Each of them had an eager gleam in their eyes, that of the oppressed throwing off their shackles and striking out with vengeance against their oppressors.
"That was awfully fast," Selphie commented from the head of the prisoner army as they neared the portal leading up. Beyond the solid metal passageway, they could hear blaring klaxons, which one attentive prisoner sentry had noted about twenty minutes ago, while the rest of the army had been assembling. Seifer had been preparing an inspirational speech for his troops when they had gotten word that something was happening upstairs.
"I may have underestimated Serra's strength," Nash remarked solemnly, and Seifer, saber in hand, glanced back at the flame Elemental.
"Well, that's just peachy," he replied. "Doesn't make much of a difference though. We've still got to kick her ass and get my people out of here. And that job I'm trusting to you two." H glanced to Irvine and Selphie, both of whom nodded immediately.
"We'll take care of it," Irvine stated, holding his rifle tightly in hand.
"Yeah, you'd better," Seifer replied quietly. "These are my people. Their lives matter to me. Keep them safe."
"You're different from the guy Squall described all those years ago," Selphie remarked, and Seifer laughed darkly.
"Trust me," he said. "You have no idea."
The column of soon-to-be free prisoners neared the door, and Nash walked forward, cracking his knuckles casually.
"Let me get this," he said with a smile. "I had to leave it intact last time, but now . . . ."
The scientist reared back, fires exploding around his right arm as he wound up, and then launched his arm forward, sending a roiling ball of hellish flames against the door. The metal flared a bright yellow, and quickly turned white from the intense heat, and Nash swept his arms out wide. The melting metal peeled away, opening wide, and Nash stepped back. Selphie stepped up, concentrating, and gestured forcefully at the molten metal. Cold air rushed past, cooling the molten doors and hardening them in an instant, leaving a wide passage before the prisoners.
"Okay, people!" Seifer shouted, turning back to his people. "Let's get the hell out of here! Freedom!
"Freedom!" the army of prisoners shouted, and Seifer spun, leading his people out of the Undercity and up into the heart of Iceblood Prison. They rushed forward, ready for battle.
The prison was in an apparent uproar, and the four hundred escaping warriors from the Undercity encountered no resistance for several long minutes as they hurried through klaxon-filled corridors that pulsed with red warning lights.
"Something isn't right!" Selphie shouted over the alarms, and Irvine nodded.
"We should have encountered something by now!" the sharpshooter said.
"The guards are likely all in the labs, fighting Serra!" Nash replied. "We should have a straight shot out of here as long as Seifer and I can keep her busy!"
"Then let's stop dickin' around!" Seifer snarled, and rushed on ahead, Nash quickly chasing after him. The Governor turned, glancing back at Irvine and Selphie, and pointed their way as he clutched his saber tightly.
"You two! Get to Lockdown, free the prisoners there, and get my people out of here! I'm counting on you!"
With that, the pair dashed down the corridor and turned a corner, Nash leading the pair toward the labs. The column of prisoners hurried on, leaving the two men behind as they rushed toward the labs. They quickly navigated the corridors, and soon enough entered the lab sector, heralded by corridors lit only by the bloody red of blazing alarm lights. The pair cut around another corner, and ran into an Estharian MP, his back turned to them. As the man turned, expecting the pair to be reinforcements, he was shocked as a fist smashed into his faceplate.
Seifer grabbed the stunned guard by the throat and slammed him into the wall, leveling his saber at the soldier's throat. The man struggled for an instant before he realized his predicament, and also precisely who it was that was holding him.
"Yeah, bitch, you know who I am," Seifer snarled, a smile cutting across his features. He flicked the blade in his hand slightly, making a slight tear in the elastic white uniform of the soldier. "We're heading for the labs, and we need to know how many men you sent in response to the . . . disturbance."
"Mo . . . Most of the guards and Elementals are in there, fighting the monster," the soldier stammered, and Seifer nodded.
"Not many protecting the exits, hm?" he asked, and the soldier nodded slightly. "Thanks." Seifer whipped his arm across, smacking to soldier hard and knocking him out cold.
"You know he was lying through his teeth," Nash commented as they moved down the corridor.
"Oh, yeah," Seifer replied with a shrug. "We can expect maybe half of the prison's security is here in the labs fighting Serra, and the rest are covering the main entrance. They know we're on the loose, and they know that there's only one way we can escape. Let's just hope those two can get my people out."
They came to an intersection, shrouded in darkness, even the emergency lights offline, and Nash channeled his fires, calling up an aura of flame around his body and turning himself into a human lamp. Yellow light filled the corridor, and the pair could see that they were surrounded by twisted and mangled Estharian corpses, many still clutching their weapons in tight death grips. Seifer crouched next to one of the men and looked over his injuries.
"Shadow energy burns," he whispered. "Definitely Diablos then." He glanced back up at Nash. "What's the plan?"
"If we deal enough damage to Diablos, we may be able to weaken its hold over her long enough for Serra's mind to regain control."
"You don't sound certain," Seifer muttered, standing.
"It's all theory, for the most part," Nash replied with a shrug. "I can't give you exact odds. I'm a scientist, not a soothsayer."
"Well, if we can't weaken Diablos enough for Serra to recover, what do we do?"
"At its core, this manifestation of Diablos is very similar to a Guardian Force summon," Nash explained. "If we hit it hard enough and fast enough, we can incapacitate Diablos' avatar and disable it, and Serra can recover."
"So, in other words, we just beat the shit out it?" Seifer asked, and Nash nodded.
"More or less."
"Then let's get to it," Seifer said, moving down the corridor. They advanced quietly, Nash's flames lighting their path as they moved further into the labs, and soon, they drew near to another intersection. However, as the two men approached, they heard the intense drumbeat of boots on the floor, and panicked shouts and screams. A pair of Estharian soldiers rounded the corner, and, paying no attention, whirled to face an unseen threat, firing their rifles. Plasma flashed for an instant and then both soldiers were engulfed in shadow. They screamed in horror, and then went silent, and the shadow receded, leaving their corpses along the passageway.
"Get ready," Nash whispered, and his flames abruptly went out, hiding his presence. The two men readied themselves, Seifer raising his saber, and Nash preparing his flames, as darkness roiled around the corner.
Her back slammed into the stone below, and Illarra let out a slight grunt of pain. She stared up at the shadow descending on her, Squall's gunblade leading as he fell. They locked eyes, his one intact orb meeting her rage-filled ones, and an instant later, she snapped up her weapon, slamming it into Squall's gunblade as he fell atop her. She spun, kicking out with her leg, and caught the SeeD in the side, and sent him skidding across the courtyard.
Squall flipped up onto his feet as she did the same, charging madly at him, shouting an inarticulate cry of fury as their two weapons met with a blinding flash of energy on energy. Squall's knee shot up at her gut, but Illarra fell back a step and shot forward with a thrust at Squall's chest, which he deflected with ease. Her knife crossed over her gunblade arm and stabbed at his head, to which Squall leaned back and shot his left hand up, catching her wrist. His right arm moved in toward his chest, and he drove his elbow into her chin, knocking Illarra's head back. The SeeD rushed forward into the opening, Lionheart chopping violently, but Illarra quickly recovered, parrying the chops with brilliant parries. She quickly cut Squall's momentum short with a thrust of her knife that almost cut his throat if he hadn't seen the attack and leapt away.
She pursued, forcing him back on the defensive for an instant with alternating jabs and thrusts with her knife and gunblade, weapons moving in flashing blurs that were close to impossible for anyone to track.
Anyone, that was, excepting Squall, whose left and drew one of his knives and rapidly parried and deflected her attacks, catching Illarra's assault and turning it away, his motions as quick and deceptive as her own. Within a trio of parries with his gunblade and a deflection with his knife, he was forcing her back onto her heels. A quick thrust with Lionheart forced her a step back, and she parried the stab, and Squall spun around, putting his left foot forward as he was turning. Illarra moved to block the rotating slash, but Squall stopped in mid-step, flipping his knife over into an overhand grip, and stabbed it at her. Illarra jerked away, and let out a gasp of pain as the knife cut a deep, painful wound into her shoulder.
"Fucker!" she snarled, leaping at Squall, weapons chopping violently, which he caught and deflected wordlessly. A flick of each of his wrists turned Illarra's weapons out wide, and squall stepped forward, head snapping straight ahead. His forehead smashed into her face, launching the woman backward across the stone courtyard, bouncing over the set stones.
"You're angry," he muttered darkly, shaking his head as the woman got back to her feet, eying him with a stare that could have killed a man. "What did I do to you to make you this way?"
"You were born," she snarled angrily at Squall, not even glancing at her wounded limb. She began to circle once more, now less of a predatory stalk, instead one with a hint of caution, but also anger and fury that was apparent within her movements.
"The Chimera's blood," she hissed quietly. "You and I both have it. Your mother and my father both have his genes . . . Though I don't think anyone on her side of the family tree knew anything about the Chimera." She paused, and shook her head. "You see, your mother, and my father, Raine Loire and Crell Varines . . . they were born with the last name Leonhart. That was the name of the Chimera. He is, for all intents and purposes, our grandfather, and the parent of both your mother and my father."
"The Chimera was Centra's ultimate super-soldier," Squall muttered. "But that was decades ago. Before the Cry that destroyed Centra. How did he . . . ."
"Centra's scientists were very, very skilled," she explained to him. "They modified his genetic structure, using both science and magic, to turn him into the best warrior imaginable, down to the genetic level. One of the modifications they made was to eliminate the gene that triggers the end of cellular mitosis."
"You mean they killed the gene that makes him to die of old age," Squall said, and she nodded.
"There's no telling how old he is, or even if he's still alive. All that is known is that he had two children after Centra fell, who were born about forty to fifty years ago, in different parts of the world. These children, like the Chimera himself, would be very . . . valuable, to the right people. Their genetic structure, as well as any children they would have, would be more valuable than any weapon. And after Esthar was taken over by Laguna, the Adelists needed any weapon they could get their hands on if they wanted to topple the government."
Squall stared at her for a long moment, realization finally sinking in.
"You," he whispered, and she nodded, expression somewhere between a smile and an infuriated grimace on her features.
"Major Virago, a year or so before Adel fell, had a child with an Estharian woman. And after Adel fell, he had to go into hiding. Thus it was that I was born to a single mother . . . And while Esthar's new military could not track down Virago's family, the many and varied splinter factions of the Adel loyalists knew everything about him and his family. Thus, they knew about me.
"Suffice it to say, they were eager to get their hands on one who bore the blood of the Chimera. They wanted me, so, at the tender age of two years old, they burst into my mother's home, killed her where she stood, and took me to be their new weapon of choice."
Squall winced as he saw her fury begin to boil over, her hands shaking with uncontrollable rage.
"This faction that took me was one of the most hardcore of the lot," she whispered. "They turned me into a weapon overnight. I was three years old when I first learned how to use a gun. By the age of five, I could kill a man in fourteen different ways with a knife." She closed her eyes, hands shaking further, and her voice getting tighter, angrier.
"They knew what they were making, and they knew they had to keep me in line," she stated quietly. "You know what they would do. Torture, brutality, iron hard discipline, all being forced on me before I turned five. As I got older and tougher, they had to come up with newer, more inventive ways to keep me under control. Some of the things they did . . . Well, I'll leave it to your imagination to come up with things that would make a dragon squeal. I spent over a decade in that hellhole, until . . . ."
"Until he saved you," Squall muttered, and she opened her eyes, staring into Squall's face silently, shocked by his insight.
"It's the only way to explain why you serve Virago," he added. "He wasn't part of the cell that was abusing you, and I know that the movement is violently fractured. They pissed off his cell, didn't they?"
"Yes," she replied quietly, nodding. "My father's troops stormed in and attacked the place where they were holding me. My captors tried to get me to fight, but the second they put a weapon in my hand I turned and started killing them. By the time Virago showed up, I was still hacking with a bayonet at a pile of corpses that was taller than me. He took me in, recognizing me as his long-lost daughter, and ever since then I've been serving him . . . And through him I learned about you.
"He told me all about you," she snarled, her blazing rage shifting back toward Squall. "You, Squall Leonhart, the quiet little SeeD cadet, raised and pampered in Garden his whole life, surrounded by people who were amazed by his natural skills and admired by all. The quiet, spoiled little brat who got everything because he was the Chimera's descendant, while I was left to scavenge for myself because of the exact same reason, tortured and beaten and brutalized because they fucking found me first!"
Her face was flushing red with livid anger, and Squall saw something within her snap.
"Now you know!" she screamed at him, pointing at the SeeD, her eyes wide and distinctly lacking in anything resembling sanity. "Now you know what I went through! You . . . You lived the happy life, and now you're going to fucking pay the price!"
She's lost it! Squall settled back into a defensive stance as Illarra rushed forward. Rinoa was right, she is insane! There's no way to reason with her . . . .
Lionheart connected with her blurring strikes, Griever's powers giving the SeeD shocking clarity and insight into her movements. The two gunblades and the pair of knives connected with a singing chorus of rings and scrapes.
But . . . Illarra, I don't want to kill you now. This anger, this rage, everything that's happened to you . . . There's no wonder you ended up like this. I can't hate you for what you are or why you want to kill me. All I can feel . . . .
She whirled low and came up with a spiraling assault of gunblade and knife, to which Squall hopped back and rapidly deflected the attacks. He rushed in right behind them as she shot forward with a double thrust with her weapons, which he rolled around and come forward at her with a spinning kick that slammed into her temple and launched the woman across the battlefield.
. . . . is pity.
She hit the wall of the castle hard, spider-webs crackling in the stone around where she struck, and fell to the stone.
Pity?
Squall jerked as he heard that voice in his head, a deep, resonant tone, amused and curious at the same time. There was a sense of tremendous power in the voice, and Squall knew who he was dealing with.
Griever.
Illarra stood up shakily and turned to Squall, seeing him standing silently, focusing inwardly on the creature that shared his mind.
Pity, for one who has done these things to you? For one who forced you to join with me? My, my, Squall . . . For a human, you have a compassionate heart. Too compassionate for your own good.
Squall snorted.
Compassion is what makes me human. You're nothing but a monster.
Illarra snarled again and rushed forward, so full of blind, insane anger that she didn't even shout or scream, closing in on Squall. Instinctively, however, he knew she was approaching and raised his weapons.
A monster? Yes, perhaps I am, Squall. But I'm only a monster by the concepts of your feeble human mind. In reality, you are blind, Squall.
Blind?
Illarra closed in, weapons crossing before her, and she spun into another whirling assault, blades slicing high and low at Squall, who quickly deflected them as Griever continued to speak.
Blind to reality, blind to your base human nature . . . and blind to what you really are. But then again, I suppose we all are blind. Illarra is blind to her real enemy, which is the core of the human soul and the baseness it can achieve, something which she cannot fight and instead has shifted her anger toward you in an effort to release it.
And you? What are you blind to?
I'm blind to anything beyond pain and suffering, naturally. But through you, maybe I can open my eyes. But in order to open them, you'll need to open yours.
I like my mindset the way it is, thanks.
Squall grunted as Illarra launched a particularly hard blow, which he caught on the flat of his gunblade and was pushed back a few inches along the stone. She whipped around, slashing down wildly with her knife.
You don't understand my intent. I'm going to show you more. I'm going to show you what it means to be an Elemental, as she calls us now. And in order to understand what you are, you need to become more aware. Aware of everything around you, to see things as they really are. And in order to attain that clarity . . . .
Squall's shoulder jerked as he moved to parry the falling knife, and his head moved forward, entirely against his own will. He realized with a shock that the left side of his face was moving toward her knife.
Searing pain shot down the side of Squall's face as Illarra's knife cut down, slicing through the front of his forehead and cutting down into his intact left eye, before ripping out of his cheek.
. . . you need to become truly blind, Squall.
Hades grunted as a fist slammed into his stomach, and Alucard followed through with an uppercut that knocked the Guardian of Death in his skull-like visage. Hades fell back a step, and a right cross from Alucard smashed into his jaw. Hades was spun around, and he used the power in his spin to continue the rotation, whirling around and chopping across with his scythe at Alucard. The Guardian of Existence vanished for a moment and reappeared a step away, calmly cracking his knuckles.
"Stop dodging, you old coot!" Hades complained, and the other Guardian shrugged, and then waved his left hand in the air, index finger tracing a wide circle that began to glow white. He reached into the circle, his arm disappearing into it, and when he pulled it back out, his hand was gripping a long, slender rapier. Alucard snapped the rapier into a guard, and Hades laughed, his chuckle a deep, demonic sound.
"Now that's more like it," he growled, and rushed in. His scythe slashed across, ringing solidly against the slender blade Alucard wielded, and the Guardian of Existence flicked his wrist, tossing the polearm aside with inhuman ease and following through with a quick thrust that Hades had to parry with the shaft of his heavy weapon. The rapier twirled in the air, and Alucard thrust again, rolling the blade around Hades' weapon, which he again deftly deflected.
"That puny thing can't hurt me!" snapped Hades with a chuckle, chopping in again with his scythe. Alucard made no move to deflect the cut, and instead simply vanished, flickering away and reappearing beside the specter, stabbing hard into his unprotected flank. Hades snarled as the rapier bit into his side, and whirled, cleaving viciously with his scythe, forcing Alucard to vanish a second time and reappear a step away.
"Stop teleporting and fight like a Guardian!"
A short distance away, watching the clash between death and Existence, were Quistis and Hyne. The SeeD kept glancing between the battle and the short girl less than ten feet away, who was observing the confrontation with detached amusement. After a moment, the Blonde woman spoke, turning completely to Hyne.
"Why?" The girl looked up at Quistis, a quizzical expression on her innocent-looking face.
"What?" she asked.
"Why did you start this war?" Quistis demanded. "Everything that's happened has been your fault. You're doing this to end all existence, but why? How is this going to accomplish your goal?"
"If I told you, you'd try to stop it," Hyne replied, shaking her head and laughing. "I'm not stupid. But I will say that most of this is merely Crell's plan. This war is just a side effect of what we're doing, though it is a . . . pleasant diversion."
"You're calling the deaths of countless men and women pleasant?" Quistis snarled. "My troops, my people are fighting for their lives, and you're enjoying that?"
"Destruction, Quistis," Hyne replied, shrugging. "It's, literally, what I exist for. I naturally enjoy watching things be ruined and annihilated. It doesn't matter who it is. Right now, it's simply your SeeDs' deaths I get to laugh at."
Quistis' rante snapped across in the blink of an eye, and Hyne raised an arm. The chain flew forward with a loud snap! that cut across the cold air.
And Hyne, more or less effortlessly, had reached up with her left arm and caught the tip of the blade as it had neared her body. She glanced at the whip, and then at Quistis, and quietly laughed, shaking her head in apparent pity.
"I've existed for time immemorial, Quistis," she explained. "You think that, of all things, a single, pathetic mortal like yourself can defeat The End?"
"I can try," Quistis replied firmly, tugging on her whip, which refused to move.
"You can die," Hyne corrected., and yanked hard on the rante, pulling Quistis closer. The short, fragile-seeming girl gestured at Quistis with her free right hand, and the SeeD was blasted backwards by some invisible force, hurled down into the snow. She let out a pained grunt as she rolled away, and came up to her feet, knee deep in the snow. As she rose, Quistis summoned up her Blue magic, and unleashed a torrent of flames that roiled forth at Hyne, annihilating the snow she stood upon.
Hyne giggled as the fires slammed into her, burning around her and seeming to vanish a few inches from her body, winking out in an instant, while the rest of the flames continued past. Quistis, as she was casting the spell, rushed forward, snapping her whip out again at Hyne, who again raised her hand, the whip coming to a stop right in her palm. Quistis saw the movement, and her eyes widened as she began to realize what Hyne was doing.
An instant later, as Hyne strode forward, her delicate shoes hovering over the blackened, damp ground left by Quistis' flame attack, the SeeD was hit by a wave of weakness, some force pulling at her strength and sapping away her power. It took her several moments to make the connection between the sudden loss of strength and the way Hyne was effortlessly avoiding her blows.
There was something surrounding her, something protecting Hyne that seemed to sap the very energy from Quistis' magic, her blows, and even her body.
"What is this?" Quistis demanded, falling back, casting a quick healing spell over herself. Like her Blue Magic, however, the healing energy simply faded away, stolen by Hyne's power.
"I embody the End," Hyne explained quietly, smiling. As Quistis stumbled backward, her legs feeling weak. "What you feel is my very essence, my power to simply . . . unmake things. I suppressed the kinetic energy of your whip strikes, I suppressed the magic of your spells, and now, I suppress your very life force. With barely a touch, I can snuff you out of existence, Quistis. Tell me . . . ."
She paused, looking Quistis in the eye, and smirked darkly.
"What does it feel like to be facing absolute power?"
Quistis spat at Hyne, surprising the Guardian, and the spittle landed right on the little girl's forehead.
"Suppress that, bitch," she snarled, and Hyne's face went red, livid with anger. She raised a hand, and pain wracked Quistis' body as darkness and the very strength of annihilation shot through her. Quistis loosed an inarticulate cry of pain as she felt her evry existence begin to be erased.
"I said you could die," Hyne growled. "Now, please be a dear and do it for me!"
Quistis tried grasping her rante, to call up magic, or to summon a Guardian Force, but the pain rapidly grew to indescribable levels. She could almost feel her very molecular structure begin to fall apart, and blood erupted from a hundred ruptures along her body, running out and staining her winter-white gear. Quistis shuddered uncontrollably as Hyne tore her apart with her raw power of pure destruction, face contorting in glee.
Then, Hyne's face contorted differently, and the pain vanished, as did Hyne, flying away at the end of a spinning kick that seemed to come out of nowhere and slammed directly into her delicate face.
Alucard had an annoying, yet endearing, tendency to do that kind of thing.
The white mists still flew and swirled about, completely blocking any method of visual targeting beyond a very short distance. For the Galbadian, SeeD, and Dollet defenders, this severely hampered their troops' ability to return fire on the enemy, though they quickly adapted, shifting to fire on the sources of energy lancing toward their positions. Even so, the mists erupting from the snows shrouded the battlefield, causing chaos and confusion as the Estharian invaders pressed in closer.
A half dozen brilliant flashes erupted along the defensive line, and nearly two hundred men were instantly annihilated as the massive, mighty Overlord walkers poured fire into their ranks, their targeting systems unaffected by the mists, and their armor repelling the scattered return fire that came their way as they advanced over the plains.
Major Eric Malachi watched the advance, satisfied with the constant forward movement of his forces. The initial losses had been immediate and heavy, but once the walkers had joined in, the battle had immediately and overwhelmingly shifted to the Estharians' favor. The Overlord walkers, with their main artillery cannons and almost ridiculously thick armor, were devastating weapons, as long as they had close combat support.
Naturally, that was why Malachi had ordered an entire third of his division to act as their screen, while the second third of the division engaged the enemy defensive line to keep them busy while his walkers got into position. The last third of his division, Malachi remembered angrily, was dead back at the ridge where the SeeDs had made their stand.
The Major commanding the forces slowed his scout bike, as he was drifting too far ahead of the defensive force surrounding the Overlords. Malachi turned around and moved back to his troops and vehicles, cursing himself for feeling too eager to join the engagement.
"You waste our talents back here," muttered the Sorceress, and Malachi glanced back at her as he settled into position. Unlike the majority of the troops, she was not in a vehicle, but rather was simply using her magic to hover over the ground as her three hundred white robed guards surrounded her, none of them requiring a vehicle either.
Idiot, Malachi though. You're leaving yourself exposed. All they need is one lucky sniper, and in this chaos we probably would never see him fire.
"Relax," he stated, shaking his head. "This is just an opening skirmish. There will be plenty more engagements up ahead. You can flex all the muscle you want then."
Veronica opened her mouth to counter, but a buzzing in the Major's ear told Malachi that someone was trying to contact him. He pressed a finger to his ear and listened intently. His eyes widened as he heard the frantic voice of Lieutenant Gernas, head of one of the tank companies attacking the south end of the defensive line.
"Major! We're under attack! They've launched an offensive! There's . . . Hyne, there's dozens of them! Begin retreat! Begin retreat! Fall ba-"
The line cut off as a rapid assault of explosions could be seen through the chaotic mists along the south end of the line. Malachi barked out a barrage of orders, bringing part of his division around the field to face the threat. Wordlessly, Veronica also positioned herself and her minions to defend the Overlords as the walkers pulsed once more, blasting the defensive line.
"So, they came out of their hole," the Major muttered, smiling. "Good. It is getting boring back here."
A tank backed out of the mist, firing its main cannon as fast as it could. As it was retreating, a beam lanced out from the mists and speared the vehicle. An instant later, the tank began to glow, and then exploded with a plume of white light. Beyond the mists, from the direction the beam had originated, a strange, somewhat muffled avalanche of sound could be heard. Malachi paused, not certain what he was hearing. He didn't place the noise until Veronica spoke up.
"Are those . . . jackhammers?"
Jackhammers, and dozens of them. That sound was usually associated with-
Twelve black armored, rapidly moving machines burst from the swirling mists, red forward sensors blazing, charging across the plain, each on four huge, spider-like legs as they advanced, pinchers held before them and ready fro battle. And behind them, erupting from the mists as well, came three dozen Dollet light assault vehicles, riding atop large, chain-bound wheels and with men manning heavy gattling cannons on the back.
Beyond the leading edge of the Galbadian X-ATM spider war machines, in the first of the numerous Dollet LRVs, Malachi could see the familiar figure of Zell Dincht, riding in the passenger seat of the lead vehicle.
"Bastard!" the Major shouted, and gunned the engine on his scout bike. His own elite commando unit, many of them minor Elementals like himself, moved up around him as he sent a single message to his forces defending the Overlords.
"Charge!"
Nash and Seifer stared at the demon as it rounded the corner. They looked into Diablos' red eyes, its slender shape, its great, vast wings, and the pool of darkness surrounding it, as if it controlled the very shadows themselves. It eyed them with contempt, but also a watchful wariness, as if it knew that they were not the same as the dead men at its feet.
You are human, it stated, its voice resounding in the corridor, as it looked upon Seifer. But you are not with these humans I have slain. I will not kill you . . . Yet.
And you, Diablos stated, looking to Nash. You are not human anymore. You are like this child, a fusion. You are not my enemy. Stand aside, and I will not harm you.
"Can't do that," Nash responded. "We can't let you run free, and we're not going to let you abuse that child inside that body anymore."
I am the Guardian of Shadow! You have no idea what that means, do you? You are both insects, even you, Elemental! Do not stand in the way of my vengeance, and I will not harm you.
"Since when has the risk of bodily harm stopped me?" Seifer replied. He slid into his traditional guard, sword pointing at Diablos. "C'mon. Let's get this over with. You don't have to admit you're scared of us."
For THAT, human, I will make your end prolonged.
"Wouldn't have it any other way," Seifer replied with a gin, and he sent Nash a slight, almost imperceptible nod.
Nash's hand shot forward, and a bolt of flame lanced out at Diablos, who whirled and raised a hand, creating a wall of darkness that absorbed the flames. Seifer skittered around to the left, sliding up into Diablos' flank and stabbing it in the side with his saber. The Guardian howled, and Nash shot forward, flames wreathing his body as he slammed both his fists into the wall of darkness, the shadow collapsing as pure white fires rippled off the Elemental's hands.
Diablos floated backward, Seifer's blade cutting right in front of it, and sent a wave of dark energy out before it, the evil magic lifting Seifer up and tossing him a few feet back. Nash bulled through the darkness, the flames around his body burning brighter as he closed in. He launched a high spinning kick at Diablos, which the Guardian blocked with one hand while the other conjured up a bolt of shadow magic. Nash retracted his foot and ducked low, spinning to the side and out of the path of the energy bolt.
Seifer cut in, thrusting his saber into Diablos' chest, the blade digging in and inciting another howl of pain from the Guardian Force. It snapped an arm across and smacked Seifer across the face, launching him into the wall of the corridor, and whirled on Nash in time to catch a hard, flame wreathed punch to the face that sent the Guardian flipping end over end toward the other end of the corridor. Seifer and Nash quickly chased after the Guardian as it righted itself and drew upon its shadow magic, sending tentacles of darkness lancing down the hall at them.
Seifer ducked and rolled beneath one projection of darkness, and then spun aside, and then ran forward and leapt onto the wall, kicking off and evading a trio of additional attacks, while Nash simply bulled right through them, increasing the intensity of his flames and crossing his arms before him, creating a fiery shield. Shadow struck the shield and hissed, burned away by Nash's power. Diablos realized that its opponents were too agile or tough for that tactic and then shot forward, right into Seifer's path, and belted him across the face with a hard right hook that sent the SeeD sprawling to the ground.
Nash came in at Diablos' flank as it passed, and planted a flying kick to its side that sent the GF into the wall. The scientist rushed in, arms erupting with white-hot fires as he pummeled the Guardian with alternating blows with his hands and knees, pounding it into the wall. An intense inferno of flames surrounded the scientist as he assaulted the Guardian, and Nash suddenly stepped back, the fires suddenly pouring into his arm, which glowed a brilliant blue as he shot forward with a punch that shook the entirety of the labs and literally shattered the wall, launching Diablos into the room beyond.
Diablos had barely flown into the chamber when Seifer leapt over Nash and chased after it. The Guardian smashed into a lab table in what looked like another laboratory room, and quickly rose in time to take a thrust to the chest, and then a spinning backhand with the saber that cut into its face. Enraged, Diablos' arm lanced out, grabbing Seifer by t he neck and lifting him up. Seifer chopped down viciously with his saber, but Diablos caught the blade and twisted its wrist, tearing the sword from Seifer's hand.
Then, Nash burst into the chamber, flames blazing brilliantly as he rushed toward Diablos. A wall of shadow shot up before the scientist, which he broke through with the sheer intensity of his fire magic, but as he blasted past the barrier, he met Diablos' waiting right hook that sent him flying backward. The Guardian turned its head toward Seifer, and then chuckled.
Now, human. Die. Die, and vanish forever!
Dark magic shot through Seifer's body and he let out a strangled gasp of pain as he felt his very soul begin to burn.
-
Wow. This chapter took forever. I apologize for the relative shortness of the chapter, but the list of things i have palnned for this segment is long. So long that I'm suspecting that if I kept it up with this chapter I'd have over forty pages of stuff. That and I knew you people were tired of waiting for the next chapter, so, hey, here ya go. I'll truely, truly finish up this part of the story next chapter, and I promise that it will be suitably epic!
Now, for something that's disturbing me. I've recently received an e-mail from Chris Ganale, regarding something that the site admins are doing. It seems that they are punishing people for responding to reviews. Now, I'm not so sure about this, as they've never bothered me about it thus far, and I've been doing it for years now. There hasn't been a front page announcement regarding this supposed new rule, and since the email didn't mention who it was that was punished or what the nature of the volation was, I'm skeptical. It may simply be an extrapolation of the rule regarding the use of the review system as a message board, but again, I've been doing it for years and noone's bothered me about it.
Its my personal view that, if the admins of the site don't want us responding to reviews in the story, then they should implement a system allowing us to respond to our reviews. But again, that is only if they are serious about stopping this, which I doubt. Again, without any information on who was punished or what the nature of the violation was, I can't consider this to be that serious. If someone can tell me more about what's going on, I'd like to hear about it. Shoot me an email.
So, assuming that the admins don't really care (and if they want me stop, they just have to ask) here are the Shout-Outs!
Chris Ganale: The Overlords are more AT-AT than Scarab. I'll describe them in more detail next chapter when our heroes tackle them.
DBZ Fanfiction Queen: Ain't I evil? Squall's blind now! Hahaha!
Am I being sarcastic? Or serious? You never know.
You'll see a lot more Selphie and Irvine action next chapter. Next chapter will be intense.
JadeAlmasy: A perfect match? More like a match made in hell. Just you guys wait...
Xephon: I'm not going to say whether Squall or any Elemental can get unattached to their GF. That would ruin key plot points! And also, remember that Illarra is bonkers. She doesn't use common sense.
Johnny: All you people can thank this guy for reminding me that Galbadia has Black Widows. :D
Kolostramin Indincranin: Why, yes. the GF can influence people they are fused with. That's what makes this so interesting!
Griever was destroyed in the future. In this timeline, Griever is still alive.
Icedragon6171: Well, yeah. Illarra is insane, after all. She does her own thing.
TainShairi: Oh, yes. Griver is evil. It makes sense, especially with the way I portrayed him in Gunblade.
Wolf of Light: Glad you hate her. I'm getting kind of eager to get to the point where she gets offed, but not because I don't like her, but what effect that will have on the story.
Daniel Wesley Rydell: Nothing amusing? You lose.
Spikestrife: Yes, I keep disappointing you guys. XD This is what i get when I take on a story too big for my own good.
Squall? Regenerating eyes? Hmph. So cliched.
Snowecat: Considering I have no idea who Refugee is . . . yeah. I would take on his stories but my plate is kinda full now.
Orestes666: Hyne doesn't have anything against Squall. At least, not directly.
Well, Illarra is fused with Bahamut already, so...yeah.
Leonhartilly: Trust me, Squall will not get a day off until this fic is completely over. XD
Katy: Awesome duel? Well, just wait. The turely epic stuff will come in a few chapters...
OniRazz: Illarra's not so much a fool as she is completely insane. And for good reason.
Seifer, an Elemental? Don't go spoiling anything now...
E: Well, yeah, Bahamut isn't the most powerful in the game, but that's whyI give canon the bird when it doesn't suit my purposes.
Well, you have to remember, both Squalla nd Illarra have the Chimer genes. The combination of Chimera plus Elemental powers make both of them extremely powerful and dangerous. Since they both have the same genetic structure, they both are almost perfectly evenly matched.
Big Boss? Wow. I never considered that similarity. (I was actually aiming more for a bit of Baiken from GGXX...)
And yes, I made Hyne evil! I wanted to do something drastically different. This is drastically different.
That everyone? Spiffy. Hopefully next chapter will be faster!
Until next chapter.