The blade of Gerdinus' large one handed sword cleaved another fiend's head from its shoulders. The walking pile of bones jerked uneasily as its body realized that it was no longer being guided and crumbled to the floor. The proud Paladin stood before the decapitated head gazing into the sockets that showed no signs of life and then at its jaws that moved open and closed uneasily. His white boot pressed against the side of the skull and smashed it inwards.
Another foul undead lunged out of the shadows and was greeted warmly by the side of the Galka's shield that broke the skull and chest into pieces with ease. A blast of holy white magic into the darkness the fiends were emerging from wiped out four more and sealed the passage.
While the different forms that the foul undead took only appeared during the night in the open, in the deep system of caves connecting Qufim Island to Behemoth's Dominion night was eternal. Through the white bone like structures connected to the tower settled in the middle of the island ran a dark power that kept the creatures in the pitiful state he found them. It was his and every other Paladin's duty to exterminate the poor spirits to free them into the afterlife.
He had not run into problems thus far and even passing through Jeuno to reach the island had been simple enough. He had been stopped at the gates to Port Jeuno as any other traveller would and then was allowed through. From the scattered messages he had heard through his pearl the others were still safe also.
Despite how easily he was making progress, over confidence was not in his nature and he quickly reminded himself that the demonic creature whose lair he now ventured into was far too powerful for him. The beast known as Behemoth would be in the open at the far end of the caves. He could not go anywhere near that section or the monster might smell his scent.
Round a tight left turn he found that the passage opened into quite a large circular room. At first he was worried that he had come too far and had stumbled out into the beast's area, but it was still too dark to be the exit. In the far corner of the large chamber something caught his eye. Turning to face whatever it was Gerdinus saw a purple glint. Had he found the Prayer Stone of Thunder?
Something is wrong, he said inwardly. There were so many twists and turns in the caves, yet I found it so easily? I have never ventured in this deep before yet I seemed to know which paths to take… Am I being controlled and if so then by whom? This place is filled with overwhelming evil yet this specific area is somehow different… This is the stone and it has done something to this place, it has changed it. Is that what I was drawn to? Now that I have realized it I can hear it so clearly, a sound inside me. It is as almost as strong as the call to be reborn…
He took a cautious step out and readied his weapon. There was no reason to assume that he was safe, despite the otherworldly sound calling to him. Danger could lurk in any corner of the large area.
The stone seemed to be embedded in a white slab of some kind, in the shape of a grave. It was not a natural formation; someone had made it. He did not lower his sword or shield even upon reaching the stone and simply gazed at it for a moment. Slowly, he slid his sword into its sheath that resisted against his side and reached out to the purple object.
The sound stopped almost instantly, before he had even touched it. Behind him came two strange sounds, like a frog's croak but more high pitched. He turned to see two pairs of beady eyes leering at him from the darkness. The creatures were arcane types formed by the evil in the land. They were commonly referred to as simply Weapons as they favoured combat with swords or spears that hovered of their round heads.
Thin arms held straight out were the first things he could make out, followed by a ragged bottom and a round body with red and brown blotches. This one was heading straight for him while the other stayed back in the darkness, contently watching. Another strange sound filled the air as Gerdinus saw something silver whirling around in the air above the closest creature. It was the monster's weapon of choice; a rapier.
Gerdinus had just enough time to pull his sword back out as the rapier struck forwards with a gentle wave of the Weapon's claw. He parried the attack, but the hovering sword was not hindered and attacked relentlessly. He struck it down and up and battered it with the side of his shield but it kept coming after him.
The creature can fight so freely using its mind…impressive. I am left with no choice but to attack the controller rather than attempt to destroy the rapier.
After successfully parrying another strike from the rapier, Gerdinus lunged forwards with his sword out stretched. The rapier recovered in time to knock his sword short sideways, narrowly missing the creature. The Paladin's boot struck into the Weapon as he recoiled, knocking it to the floor.
The rapier flew in again as Gerdinus spun from a combination of the recoil and pushing off of the monster's body. His shield, now horizontal as his hand was raised, caught the thin blade of the rapier and knocked it straight up. Knowing this was his chance; the mighty Galka dropped to one knee and plunged his blade into the centre of the Weapon's face.
Pink puss flowed freely as the creature squealed and jerked around for a few seconds before turning still. From the darkness the other still watched and as Gerdinus breathed deeply. Suddenly he looked up and realized that the rapier was still up there. Rolling sideways, he narrowly avoided it as it stabbed into where he had been seconds before.
"Come then foul beast!" he called to the other. "Allow me to deliver your retribution."
Slowly but surely the second Weapon crept out of the darkness. The room was filled with an even stranger sound; it was like people were whistling gently. Gerdinus' face dropped as not one but five floating armaments became clear. There were two short swords, a broken lance, an axe, and a dagger. This Weapon also seemed larger than the other.
Not giving the monster time to attack, Gerdinus pointed the hand that his shield was attached to forwards and called out; "Flash!"
A blinding white light spread from a ball of equal magnitude in his fist as he held his eyes tightly shut. The creature croaked again, but the whistling did not stop, in fact it had gotten louder and faster. The Galka rolled to the side again just in time as each of the five weapons skewered the ground where he had been before pulling back into the air and going after him again.
The creature does not need his sight to control the blades!
Each now hung in the air pointed at him, surrounding him. In the scuffle and dodging his shield had came loose and now lay by his foot. There was not enough time to lift it to block any attacks. He would not be able to parry or block all five at once anyway. It left him with little else that he could do. At the same time all five weapons pointed at him flew forwards.
"Invincible."
An intense golden light surrounded his body as Gerdinus became imbued with the latent powers of a true Paladin. Two equally gold swords materialized before him, crossed to signify the ultimate goal of his existence; to guard and protect. Moving instantaneously the two golden swords shot around his form and not only deflecting each of the attacking blades, but shattering most of them.
The twin golden weapons vanished after that, but the light stayed around the Galka. He slowly walked towards the terrified creature as it used its mind to pick up the remnants of its blades. The broken hilts and shards of blades all fired at him, but ricocheted off the golden light surrounding him like it was harder than steel.
The blade of his trusty short sword fell upon the second Weapon's body and sliced it clean down the centre, splitting it in two. As the creature died the golden light vanished and Gerdinus dropped to one knee.
"The price of power…" he said in exasperated gasps while looking to the purple stone. "For but thirty seconds of invincibility I must then pay ten times the vulnerability… So, that is what it means…to be a Paladin."
-
"This is Catherine. Shadow and I have retrieved the second of our Prayer Stones. It lay at the bottom of a cliff in the plateau and was lightly guarded by some aggressive animals. Gerdinus, we will meet you in Jeuno. …Gerdinus, are you there?"
-
Hanaa and Nokum-Akkum had been walking for a long time. Too damn long, if you asked her. The jungle was hot as well, too damn hot. Even with her chapeau casting a shadow over her face her nose was dry and she hated that the most. It was only going to get worse from that moment on as well now that they had reached the bottom of Ifrit's Cauldron.
"I wantaru a break!" the Tarutaru exclaimed (for the fifth time).
"And I want to go home!" she retorted. "But we have a job to do! Stop complaining and let's just get this over with."
"…You're mean," was the reply a few minutes later.
Oh Goddess, did I just sound like Cathy there? I'll never forgive myself for that. This heat brings out the worst in me and poor Nookie-Ookkie is nursing a hang over… But they are already finding their stones so we can't sit around for another whole day…
Eventually all traces of the jungle vanished from the scenery around them and was replaced by craggy scorched earth. The walls grew taller and closer together as they proceeded up. They passed an open pool of boiling lava that had been cascading down the side of a grey slate wall and had burnt into the ground forming the circular area. The heat coming off it was enough to make them pass out, but they bore it with only minimum complaining (on both parts).
"This place smells!" Nokum-Akkum exclaimed.
Hanaa took in a lung full of the air and coughed. There was a horrible stink in the air. She did not pretend to be smart, but was pretty sure she had heard something about the sulphur being the cause someplace. It might have been from one of Catherine's many dull books.
For some reason, she felt compelled to remind her friend that they had to be very careful. Norg had already warned them that arcane fiends drawn to magic lurked around the deeper areas of the volcano as well as a horrifying dragon. Nokum-Akkum had already had one close encounter in his life with an arcane monster that had taken the form of a floating bomb. Though it was not funny at the time, she remembered his expression on his stained black face moments after the bomb had exploded and set his precious Windustrian Aketon on fire and giggled.
Their destination was the other side of the volcano and there was no other way to reach it beyond passing through. Even if the Highwind had not gone to take Alain and Zeid to the northlands they could not have used it as the jungle beyond was enclosed by rock on a high platform and was home to a colony of Opo-opo.
"Oh yeah," he said in a slightly high pitched and gleeful way. "A Monkey Island, floating bombs outaru to getaru my Aketons, and a dragon…wait didn'taru we talk about the dragon lastaru-
"No," she hastily interrupted. "You prrrobably just got a little confused. The other night I got you a little drrrunk."
The Tarutaru grinned at her (almost in a knowing way that they were sharing a lie).
A spout of lava shooting out the ground just a short distance before them snapped both their attentions back to the matter at hand. A crack had formed along the passage at some point in time and it seemed as though the build up of heat was causing mini eruptions periodically. They watched a few happen and it did not seem like there was a system, it was just random based on the pressure.
The air around the fissure was hazy due to the heat burning into the sky and made it hard to tell what was beyond. They could not go back as they had not found any other paths, but it would be very dangerous trying to get across safely. The immense heat was not helping either of their (already short) attention spans and made it hard to think clearly.
"Why don'taru you just freeze itaru?"
"That would never worrrk; there's a constant blaze burrrning up below it and using my magic might attrrract monsters."
"Then we time itaru and jump!"
"No… Wait a second…"
She watched the fissure throw up another fountain of lava. Timing it correctly would be to difficult even at best speed as they could not standing right in front of the fissure or they would risk being caught. What they needed to do was speed across the gap just as it subsided so fast that there was no chance of being hit, but that had its draw backs as well.
Damn it, this is why I just follow orders… This plan making stuff is harder than it looks.
"Okay, here's what we do; I'll use my magic to cast Haste on us. We should get across no problems then, but monsters might come after us if we do that… so we would need to keep going as fast as possible. How's that sound? Fine? Okay? Good."
"I will follow your ordery-worderys to the letter, Ma'am!" Nokum-Akkum said with an eager grin.
She cast the spell on the Tarutaru first. A gold circle traced itself up and down Nokum-Akkum's form before he vanished in a split second. Only a few moments after he was gone did the ground under where he had been standing shuffle in reaction to his movement. She had to act quickly after that as she saw the shape of monsters begin to form from inside the fissure. Just as a yellow eyed red arcane bomb formed she cast the spell on herself and moved nearly instantly across the fissure to the other side and into the cave beyond. However, because of the creatures otherworldly origins it was able to trace their movements and gave chase at the best speed it could muster.
In her hasted state Hanaa was able to trace Nokum-Akkum's equally fast movements and kept up with him as they tore through the cave beyond the open fissure searching for the path through the volcano. If the bomb was still giving chase it would be far too far behind to worry about now. The cave went up slightly then around another corner. Did they want to go higher or lower? She had forgotten the rough directions they had been given in Norg. Regardless, there was only one path they had found and it went up so there was no choice.
Smoke seemed to be filling the cave black walled cave. Was that normal? It seemed to be getting denser as they headed up and up. Some red cracks had appeared along the ground as well. Was that normal? Hanaa began to wonder if perhaps they should slow down and consider where they might be heading.
Daylight appeared as the opposite end of the small black cave drew into view at fast speed. Daylight meant they had come out along the side or far end of the volcano most likely, but that seemed like a short trip even at the speeds that the Haste spell allowed. The smell of sulphur, the amount of smoke, and the incredible heat had all increased ten fold.
Wait a minute…uh oh…
"Stop!" she cried out.
Nokum-Akkum turned to look at her and immediately hit an uneven section of ground and broke into an uncontrollable tumble towards the exit. Hanaa tried to keep up but felt the effects of her magic disappearing rapidly. The Tarutaru let out high pitched squeals as he rolled across jagged rocks. Coming out of the cave, he skidded across a flatter dusty mound of dirt towards a very sharp edge. Hanaa leapt forwards with an outstretched hand as Nokum-Akkum's body toppled off the side.
The exasperated Mithra let out deep breaths and meowed with relief as her hand tightened around the small gauntlet. She dangled somewhat over the edge of the side of the inner rim of the volcano core. Far below them was the heart of the cauldron, an intense burning pool or liquid fire.
"…Pull…me…up…"
She struggled with one hand and eventually had to reach out with both to have any chance of pulling her friend back up onto the safety of the edge. Nokum-Akkum stayed on his back panting. She collapsed into a similar position and felt his head pressing against the top of her Warlock's Chapeau.
"When the hell did you put on so much weight!"
"Rude! I am a healthy-wealthy Tarutaru!"
"…I guess we should move… It's not safe herrre…Haste takes a lot out of me, I can't use it again for a while…"
"Lazy Red Mage," was mumbled under Nokum-Akkum's breath.
Very slowly (and with no less than four stretches), Hanaa got up on feet and helped her friend hop onto his. His blond hair and skin had been covered in dust making him look like he was chestnut coloured. She giggled and wiped his cheeks and then ruffled his hair in the way he enjoyed. A blissful grin and half closed eyes was the response.
From the cave behind them was the approaching sound of a gargling beast. Hanaa shoved Nokum-Akkum back onto the ground and then dived sideways as the arcane bomb that had been chasing them all the way through the tunnel shot out of the cave like a bullet from a gun. It flew right over them out over the centre of the volcano but did not fall. The magic controlling its very existence allowed it to hover like a bird. Its beady eyes peered at each of them as they rose back to their feet and became to float towards them.
"Go away!" Nokum-Akkum shouted at it. "You can'taru have an Aketon!"
For some reason a plan suddenly formed in Hanaa head. She was not used to that. Plans were usually things thought up by other people and all she did was carry them out yet in the space of a few minutes she had thought up two. Clearly (to her) it was the universe balancing itself out in relation to her Tarutaru companion's ineptness to understand just how dangerous a position they were in. She pointed a single hand forwards.
"Gravity."
A vortex of black and purple magic erupted around the bomb forming a huge sphere. The black sphere was then drawn into the bomb that seemed to grow in size as a result. One side of it tipped a bit and then its other followed. Soon its whole round body was slowly being pulled down by the effects of the spell as it continued to grow in size. She warned Nokum-Akkum to cover his ears as she took her own advice. The Tarutaru looked up to her and questioned why.
An explosion erupted up the centre of the volcano. Nokum-Akkum squealed with terror at the sudden sound and toppled backwards back onto the ground. She helped him up for the third time and asked if he was alright.
"I think I hitaru my head…" he complained and rubbed his eyes. "I'm seeing large humungous gigantic blue squirrels."
Hanaa almost answered, then realized just what a weird thing had been said and turned to look further round the rim of the crater. On the opposite side, happily prancing along, was a small four legged shimmering blue and green animal. In the centre of its forehead was a glistening red jewel. It seemed to be coming towards them.
"That's…Carbuncle? Then that means… Where is its master?"
From a cave on the opposite side a short person dressed in green appeared and seemed to be quite anxiously chasing after Carbuncle. It was a young Tarutaru female from what Hanaa could tell and they were also coming around to see them. Nokum-Akkum hid behind her as Carbuncle stopped a short distance in front of them and tilted its head questionably.
"Mr Carbuncle!" The female Tarutaru exclaimed. "I know there was a massive-wassive boom, butaru please run slower! Oh, oh, oh, people? Hi there, Big Bro! You seem afraid of Mr Carbuncle!"
Hanaa peered down, "Nokum-Akkum, this isn't really your…is it?"
"Of course notaru!" was the instant and angry reply. "I have no sibling-wiblings! This Tarutaru is strange! And I'm notaru afraid of the squirrel!"
All Tarutaru are strange…
The tiny female Tarutaru clad in green robes smiled and waved her hand as if to shrug off everything Nokum-Akkum had just said. The patterns of light green waves and a red horn headband confirmed to Hanaa they were in the presence of a well experienced Summoner.
There were plenty of people with the ability to Summoner lesser versions of the avatars, but only the ones blessed with the clothes she was wearing were considered experts by Windurst (they governed such things). Such skills were hidden behind the seemingly eccentric personality of the Tarutaru however and she seemed very young to be bestowed such an honour.
"Big Bro is hurtaru?" she asked rhetorically after looking at Nokum-Akkum's face covered with marks from rolling across the ground. "Mr Carbuncle and I have some Healing Magic if you wantaru us to helpy-welpy you?"
"No!" was the rude response.
The Warrior then preceded to start rubbing dust off himself but got no where as his hands were already covered and probably just made it worse much to his vocal annoyance.
"Nokum-Akkum, calm down. Hi there, Miss Summoner. My name is Hanaa Mocorho. If you don't mind me asking; who are you and what are you doing all alone in such a dangerous place?"
The female Tarutaru tilted her head to mimic her summoned familiar sitting by her side (their heads were almost level). Her hair that sat up in two bunches tied with blue ribbon flopped around as she did. She exclaimed that she was not alone and stroked the glowing blue animal. Hanaa knew enough about Summoning Magic to know that the creature before them was just a shell with little personality or life compared to the real thing, but did not contest the matter.
"My name is Renene and I was justaru paying a visit to Mr Ifrit. He sure is grumpy-wumpy though! His crystal needed a clean so I think thataru made him angry. Oh, then Mr Carbuncle heard the big bang earlier and ran! I chased after him and found Big Bro and Big Sis!"
"Eh…" was all Hanaa managed.
Carbuncle hopped towards them both, much to Nokum-Akkum's shock as he gripped her legs tighter. The glowing animal stopped just in front of him and almost seemed to smile. The worried Warror leant forwards to stare back at it and squealed as it licked his nose. Renene exclaimed that her pet had found a new friend.
"Say, Renene, do you happen to know the way to a small enclosed jungle on the other side of this volcano? We're trrrying to get there."
"Oh, sure I know thataru place, Big Sis! Itaru is where the Opo-opo go! Do you wantaru to follow Little Sis?"
Nokum-Akkum whispered, "We always getaru stuck with the weird ones…"
Look who's talking…
-
"How are your friends?" Zeid asked Alain as he rested on a chair in the meeting room.
"Catherine and Shadow are finished. They are meeting up with Gerdinus soon. Lion is probably already back in Norg knowing how quick those cut throats work. Hanaa and Nokum-Akkum are still trying to find their stone. I haven't heard Rost report anything."
His former mentor asked if that concerned him and his replay was an immediate no. Rost was not the sort to care whether they were worried about him or not. He did not consider them friends and probably not even comrades any longer. They had just been stuck together by a matter of circumstance.
"I have asked our crew to make a slight detour on our arranged flight path."
"What!" Alain cried, rising from the chair.
"Calm yourself, it is nearby. I wish to visit the throne room where Raogrimm fell. I have had a vision that leads me to believe something was done to his body after it was annihilated by the warriors of the crystal and I must see for myself."
Going to the very heart of the enemies homeland was even more stupid that trying to get into Fei Yin. He could not believe his former mentor had taken such a rash course of action based on some stupid premonition. He tried arguing but the Galka just ignored him and left. Alain decided instead to try and talk the crew out of it and found Pop and Samuel in the control room.
Pop was on his knees under the console lined with pressure gauges on the left working with some tools in a hatch that had been hidden beneath a loose floor board. Samuel had the flight controls locked in place and was toying with something below it. He asked what they were doing and at first they both seemed to ignore him, like they were far too busy concentrating on what they were doing. He repeated himself and was louder this time.
"Hey we don't have time to chit chat!" Pop cursed without turning around. "This is our baby's first chance to survive active combat and we have to make sure she's ready! We'll be inside the Northland boarders within the hour and from that moment on we could be attacked at any second! So get out of here and let us concentrate!"
Samuel's head popped up from behind the flight control and shrugged silently towards him suggesting that it was best if he did as Pop commanded. He returned to the meeting room to sit alone, defeated.
They did have a point. Even without the dangerous detour Zeid had asked them to make that would take them deeper into enemy lines the fact remained that the second they crossed into Northlands airspace they could be attacked by any form of creature. The Highwind was built as a highbred ship capable of handling itself in a fight, but Alain had no clue how it would do that.
He had spent a long time on board the ship and had never seen any sort of cannon or other weapon that would be found on the military class airships or the reinforced armour out on deck (though the Highwind did have some around the bottom of the hull to protect against accidents while landing). It would not be enough for it to be built to withstand punishment and he knew Cid did not just mean it could take a bit of damage.
The Highwind had to be capable of dealing damage and soon the chance to see what that was might present itself in spades.
-
Rost had found many strange pictures and ancient markings on his trek through the dangerous underground passages of Quicksand Caves. Once long ago it had made up a part of the Galkan Cities that littered the land above, but it had sunk over the years and become a home to the Beastmen known as Antica that drove the Galka into exodus so long ago.
Thus far he had had little trouble avoiding large confrontations and his presence in the Beastmen controlled area was still undetected. Any enemy that had discovered him had been promptly taken care off before it could call for help. While being lucky to avoid heavy battling he had been unlucky in his search for the prayer he had decided upon. Instead of carrying on searching the lower areas he had returned to the higher floors to pursue his other goal; finding out more about the Gates of the Gods.
Now he had found an old drawing sprawled across the whole of a long room. He could not determine much meaning from some dead language written along the bottom, but the pictures seemed to depict a story. Strangely the story seemed to have nothing to do with the Galka, as if it was not part of the other sections of the cave.
On closer inspection the walls textures had seemed to change slightly, to more grainy sand colour as if some blanker palate had been stained over the years. It was possible that when the ancient ruins sunk into the sand it collided or even merged with the Chamber of Oracles. What he saw now could not have been done by a garish Galkan hand no matter how wise their ancestors were.
"A floating deity…a second below it?" he mused out loud as he walked along beside the progressing story. "People are standing before a light… Is it a holy light? The people are praying to…something. A majestic image…two bright white pillars… They are praying at the feet of the gates. A blinding light…the people turn to dust… the deity below rises up as the deity above recedes… A black shadow falls on the people in the form of… Burning fire spreads across the land…"
He stopped abruptly as the tip of his boot felt open air. The floor had collapsed and taken most of the wall with it, destroying the end of the long picture.
What have I seen here? Is this pain? Will some terrible creature rain down fire if someone were to open the gates? Why must this be! I must know who those people were in that picture… If it were the Zilart so long ago…no, perhaps it was the Kuluu. But then what happened to the one who opened the gates and passed through allowing the black winged beast to come down? I cannot interpret these pictures with my limited knowledge on this…I must find out more. I must find that chamber!
The fall did not seem so far as to be hazardous to one of his skill and without a second thought, Rost leapt into the pit silently preying that he had indeed found the relics of old Zilart constructs merged into Quicksand Caves.
