Chapter Two – War
Vivi's amber eyes dimmed slightly as he released control of the spell he had been using. With the last of his nearby opponents finally taken care of, he took a moment to survey the battlefield. On a battleground that stretched for miles upon end, the only thing Vivi could see was death. All his fallen foes had met their demise from his powerful magic and were now dead at his feet. Off in the distance, he saw a small group of Genomes fighting off a regiment from Lindblum and was doing rather well, despite the enormous difference in numbers. As he saw soldier after soldier fall from vicious wounds, he felt sorry for the soldiers.
"How did it come to this?" Vivi wondered.
Three months ago, Zidane had suddenly showed up at the Black Mage Village, asking his fellow genomes for help in an all-out war against all of Gaia. When Vivi heard about the shocking news, he immediately pleaded with Zidane to stop this insanity. That is…until he heard what Zidane had discovered within the bowels of Oeilvert: information that concerned Vivi and the rest of the Black Mages. Without even a second of hesitation, Vivi promised Zidane the aid of the Black Mages left in the village. While they too, were shocked at first, after they learned of the information that Zidane had divulged, they quickly joined Vivi and Zidane in the fight. The genomes, having already known about the information, readily agreed to help.
"The genome warriors," Vivi thought with a shudder. He did not shudder because he was scared of them. He shuddered because they represented everything he hated. They were superb warriors, some just as good as Zidane. However, because none of them were given souls save Zidane and Mikoto, they could kill without conscious, without guilt. Thus, they became the perfect killing machine as they were meant to have been.
"I've got you now!" someone screamed, startling Vivi and knocking him out of his musing. It was an Alexandrian soldier who was charging at him; she had her sword out and was ready to chop his head off. With a deft leap, he twisted out of the way while delivering a blow to the side of her head with his Mace of Zeus. However, Vivi's strength did not lie in his physical attacks, so his blow did little more than stun the female soldier. However, it did give him enough time to cast a spell.
Vivi mumbled the word of power while waving the Mace of Zeus, "Death!" Before his dazed opponent, a portal that reeked of death opened and through it came the figure of Death itself. With one enormous chop of its scythe, it instantly dispatched the Alexandrian soldier. With a look of horror, the soldier quickly vanished into air, her very atoms breaking apart at the seams. Vivi turned away as the last traces of the Alexandrian soldier vanished from the face of Gaia.
When death was the only thing that he saw for miles upon miles, he occasionally meant literally. Shaking his head in an attempt to rid his memory of the slain Alexandrian soldier, he walked up the nearby hill to survey the battle. Vivi, single-handily, had wiped out an entire half of the Gaian army they were facing. Two miles off, he saw his own people fighting off the rest of the army. They were quickly losing to Eiko's forces. Closing his eyes, he drew deep within his plethora of black magic spells and called forth the greatest of his most powerful spells. Casting his eyes to the blood-red sky, he uttered the word of power.
"Doomsday!"
"Cura," Eiko muttered and blew into her Angel Flute. The healing magic spewed out and instantly healed any of her allies within her general vicinity. With their bodies healed and moral boosted, they charged at the black mages. Eiko took one look at the odds and instantly knew that her forces would not win. The black mage army had gathered and was now combining all their magical strength to summon a colossal magical attack. She closed her eyes and prepared to summon a monster beyond belief.
"Madeen!"
An eidolon with a holy attack that was surpassed only by the now dead Alexander came forth once Eiko had shouted its name, which was also the word of power. A lion-like creature with an enormous wingspan, it created a sphere made of holy magic and trapped the black mage army within it. Madeen then hurled the ball into the ground, releasing all the holy magic at once, nearly obliterating the black mage army. However, the leader, the one who had been absorbing all the magic strength of his brothers, still stood. With his final, defiant breath, he boomed a word of power:
"Meteor!"
"Oh no!" Eiko whispered. The Meteor spell was immensely powerful and could easily demolish her forces at once. Reaching into her arsenal of white magic, she called forth the one white magic spell that was too powerful to heal; it had only the power to destroy. It was a spell that surpassed even incredible power of the Meteor spell. In fact, Vivi had once told her that it was on par with his Flare spell.
"Holy!" Eiko shrieked and blew into her flute. From the other end, a burst of white magic burst forward, so powerful that if used on any opponent, it would destroy instead of heal. However, this time, Eiko directed the spell at the incoming Meteor attack. The two insanely powerful magic spells collided and exploded with incredible force, knocking down everyone on the field.
"That was too close," Eiko mumbled, but she managed to smile. Her holy spell had, for once, helped instead of killed. Tiredly, she looked up to view the aftermath. She instantly noticed that the sky was still dark, even though the Meteor spell had ended. High up in the sky, past the atmosphere and into space, Eiko noticed a dark shape getting larger. A memory surfaced, and she knew what she was staring at.
"Vivi…you didn't!" she screamed. The object in space was the beginning formation of Vivi's ultimate spell: Doomsday. She had only seen its awesome power once, but she knew fully well what it was capable of. It was similar to the Meteor spell…in the way that a Hedgehog Pie was similar to a Grand Dragon! Her Holy spell would barely affect the thing's velocity, much less stop it!
"Run for it!" Eiko screamed at her troops. They stared at her, slightly puzzled, until one of them looked up and saw the enormous shadow magic spell. Then…chaos erupted. In the midst of the confusion, Eiko reached in her bag and pulled out an armlet. It was unique and was the only thing in the world at the moment that could save her life.
"We're all gonna die!" a soldier screamed as he ran by her. Eiko paid him no mind. Unless they somehow had the power to run a thousand miles in less then ten seconds, they were all going to die. Ignoring all the chaos, Eiko snapped off her Magic Armlet and replaced it with the Egoist's Armlet. She looked up, just in time to see Doomsday impact.
"I know you're still alive, Eiko," Vivi thought. "I can still sense your life energy, weak as it is. I'll let you live for now. But know this: someday, you and I will meet on the battlefield as enemies, and one of us will not walk away."
Vivi stared out at the battlefield, now completely decimated by the shadow magic of Doomsday. True, his black mage soldiers had been completely wiped out, but Eiko had lost many more troops than he did. Behind him, he heard the Genome soldiers gather in a circle. They had been outside the magic's destructive radius and suffered no damage. Within his mind, he set his Auto-Regen ability so that he would heal quicker from the fatigue of using so many spells, especially Doomsday.
"Let's go," Vivi ordered the genomes. They marched off, not even sparing a glance at the war torn battlefield.
A/N: Well, there's my update for the week/month/year. School is really taking up a lot of my time; so don't expect updates too often. This update was more of a battle scene then anything, but I did add in some plot details. I'm still working out most of the plot, so that's why there wasn't very much in this one. There will be a lot more plot in the next chapter, I promise.
Also, I reenacted a scene from one of the other Final Fantasies. See if you can figure out which one. (Btw…it's really obvious. Don't over analyze it.) I should add one more thing: characters will die in this story. So, if you really don't like your favorite characters dying, don't read it!
Wonwingangel: Thanks so much for the encouragement. I did go back and change up a bit of chapter 1.
Ravyn Crescent: Thanks! I'll keep using it.
Luki Dimension: Really? I won't let you down.
Digidudette: Keep reading and you'll find out.