Hi everyone. No, this isn't one of those things to thank all of your for your reviews. (but I might as well now that I'm talking-thank you kindly for that last review, Leppers) Instead I want you guys to know that today marks the beginning of another story I'm currently writing. It's in the Goosebumps section and is called The End of Time. It's a sequel to Camp Glaregon, which I started early last October. If any of you guys are interested in it, I'd really appreciate some feedback on it.
Meanwhile, back to Tales of Tiberia. I'm sure you're all very anxious to see this story continue to progress, right?...right!
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The new group was now packed tightly into the small cell where Lloyd's group was going to await execution. But with Zyn on their side now, they were hoping that maybe an execution could be completely averted. That is, as long as they could trust him.
"All right," Zyn said. "If we're going to stop Tiberius once and for all, we're going to need a brilliant plan in place. We need to attack him by surprise and when he is the weakest. With him gone, the rest of the Tiberian army will crumble without his leadership."
"All right," Lloyd said. "When do we do that?"
"Yeah, it sounds kind of hard," Colette said in a scared voice.
Lloyd, trying to show what a strong man he was, turned to Colette and said, "Don't worry. With Zyn on our side, killing Tiberius from behind will be a piece of cake."
"Unfortunately," Zyn said, starting to correct Lloyd, "Tiberius is usually either locked away in his own quarters or his heavily guarded in case something like this were to happen. Killing from the inside won't be so easy."
"Honestly, Lloyd," Genis said in a sarcastic and taunting tone after he saw how his best friend jumped to conclusions too early yet again.
Lloyd scowled a little, but realized it was no time to be getting grouchy with Genis's smart remarks. He turned back to Zyn to think about what the next thing was that they had to do.
"If I could make a suggestion," Yuan said in a rude tone before anyone else spoke up, "might I suggest we get out of here before we start discussing any plans?"
"Good thinking," Zyn said. "If any of the guards question me leading you guys out, I'll tell them that I'm leading you to another jail cell."
Everyone nodded their head in agreement and walked out of the jail cell. They made their way through the fortress-like headquarters and tried to find a quick way out without being detected. Luckily, since Zyn was very high in the ranks of the Tiberian army (second only to Tiberius himself), he had a fairly good idea of all the passage ways and shortcuts through the headquarters.
However, when they were leaving, the group came across one disturbing discovery that would put a huge damper on the rest of their mission to stop Tiberius before he did something really drastic.
It turned out the group had less time than he thought. When the group was walking through one of the secret rooms that had an emergency exit in case of an emergency, they saw that there was a giant laser-like weapon that was stationed in the room, along with blue prints.
"What is that!" Sheena said in complete awe.
"Zyn…is there a reason you did not speak of this to us?" Regal asked suspiciously.
Zyn looked worried. "I…I don't understand! I swear I did not know that Tiberius had another weapon! I guess he was working on one for a land war as well. But I'm telling you, I had no idea he was working on something like this!"
The group groaned knowing that there was a top secret weapon in development that not even Zyn, an insider with Tiberia's army, knew about.
"I sense somebody coming," Presea lifelessly said when the entire group went quiet.
In no time, everybody else could sense approaching footsteps as well. They all ran out the emergency exit to leave the room so they wouldn't be seen, but they kept their ear close to the door so they could hear who it was and what was going on.
After everyone was out of the building, Zyn listened in on who was in the room. It was Tiberius, and a familiar voice. Zyn heard the voice somewhere before…
"So, doctor, you have the blueprints and the general design completed?" the group heard Tiberius ask inside.
"Yes, lord Tiberius," said the voice.
"Oh…it's Doctor Foll," Zyn said. "He's a scientist working in our base. I guess he was working on this weapon for Tiberius."
"Splendid," Tiberius said. "Tell me what this thing is capable of."
"Well, lord Tiberius, this barrel will be used to fire a heavy blast of mana that is capable of killing hundreds in a single hit," Dr. Foll continued.
"Foll, you never cease to amaze me," the group heard Tiberius say. That was enough for the small group of ten people. They ran away from the headquarters as fast as they could.
When the group was far enough away from the headquarters to talk without being caught, all of them were clearly very worried now.
"So what are we going to do now?" Lloyd asked. "We're completely powerless if Tiberius uses that thing. Not even our exspheres could protect us from a weapon like that."
"Yes," Regal said softly. "I say we try to destroy the weapon before Tiberius can do anything deadly with it."
"Guys, just making sure you realize this…" Zyn started. "If Tiberius is expecting an attack from us, then we're as good as dead. All he has to do is prepare that weapon and anyone it touches will practically be vaporized."
"Yeah," Lloyd said in agreement. "We'll get killed even more than when that giant monster we encountered on the island almost ripped us to shreds. Remember that, Colette?"
"Giant…monster?...on the island?" Zyn asked.
Lloyd turned to Zyn with a look of interest, yet confusion. "Yeah. What's so special about it?"
"Did it have dark fur and red eyes and bared teeth and claws? Did it stand upright on its two hind legs?" Zyn asked, scared.
"Yeah," Lloyd said, starting to get freaked out. "How did you know about that?"
"Those were monsters sent by Tiberius himself," Zyn admitted.
Lloyd gave Zyn a confused look. "What do you mean 'they were sent by Tiberius'?"
"Tiberius had those monsters and had been training them for a while. He knew that the crystal was located somewhere on one of the three islands that made up the one giant island, so he sent one to each of the three islands to investigate." (try to recall back in chapter 2)
"So that's what the thing was," Lloyd said. "And now we know how it got onto the island."
"Well, now that we've got everything cleared up, why don't we think about how we're going to strike without Tiberius expecting us?" Zyn suggested.
"Easier said than done," Yuan said, brining everyone down. "But it seems like Tiberius has more than enough security to keep himself well guarded."
"But Yuan," Zyn started, "weren't you one of Cruxis's Four Seraphim?"
"I thought I just explained this," Yuan said in an exasperated tone. "Yes, I am."
"Then you can fly, right?"
"Of course I can. It's part of being an angel, you know."
Lloyd had the urge to blurt something out then. "But Yuan, Colette and I tried using our wings over and over, and a lot of times they wouldn't come out!"
"I thought Kratos would have explained that to you," Yuan said coldly.
"What do you mean?"
"Lloyd, the reasons your angel wings didn't come out is because you and Colette were too close to the crystal."
"Too close to the crystal?"
"Yes. The crystal had so much power in it that just being around it neutralized your power to pull out your wings. Now that the crystal is destroyed, you won't have to worry about that anymore."
"Hey, I actually think I understood that," Lloyd said in a proud tone with a smile.
"I think you're just imaging things," Genis said in an insulting tone.
"It doesn't matter whether or not a stupid kid like yourself can understand it," Yuan said hotly.
"Excuse me!"
"Enough bickering!" Zyn said loudly and jumping into what was soon to become a long verbal argument between the two. "We need to focus more on stopping Tiberius before he starts developing something even more dangerous than that weapon he already has."
"Do you think he'll stop if we asked him nicely?" Colette said in a way-too-pleasant voice.
"No, I don't think he will," Lloyd said in a sad tone. (mostly sad for how cheerful Colette was and how easy she thought the problem would get resolved.
"Well, since you guys have your wings," Zyn said, "you could just fly to the top of the headquarters, break in from there and destroy the weapon and kill Tiberius."
"Somehow I get the feeling it won't be that simple," Yuan said. "Tiberius will more than likely have enough troops there to hold us off."
"Wait a minute," Zyn said. "Maybe attacking the headquarters isn't the best solution."
"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked.
"I'd say that before we destroy the weapon and kill Tiberius, I think we should destroy something that symbolizes his reign."
"Really?" Lloyd asked. "What's that?"
"Tower Tiberia."
"Tower Tiberia?" Lloyd asked. "What's that?"
"It's a very tall tower," Zyn explained. "It stretches practically up to the clouds and is very skinny."
"Come to think of it," Lloyd said, "I think Kratos and I saw that tower when we were planning to attack Kayne."
Lloyd's recollection was indeed correct. He had seen Tower Tiberia before. Little did he know it would turn out to be a symbol to the true enemy's reign of terror on chaos upon the world of Tiberia.
"I guess we could do that," Lloyd said.
"Great!" Zyn said excitedly. "We should get some sleep tonight. We've got a big day tomorrow."
"Hold on a minute," Yuan interrupted. "Don't you think we should recruit some men ourselves for tomorrow's battle?"
"Leave that to me," Zelos proudly said.
"Leave it to you?" Sheena interjected.
"I think you've forgotten something, my sweet hunny," Zelos said in a perverted way. "I got ties to the king of Meltokio. He has to give me anything my beautiful little heart desires. All I gotta do is go to him and ask him to lend me the whole Meltokio army. Simple as that."
"You sure he's going to let you get away with that?" Genis said in a snobby and sarcastic tone.
"Completely ignoring Brat's comment," Zelos said, trying his best to annoy Genis, "I think the king will be more than happy to lend me a few of his soldiers."
"It doesn't look like we have much of a choice," Yuan said. "Very well. Off to Meltokio it is."
Yuan pulled out his teleporter and hit the button. The same show of lights appeared around them all, and they were all back in the majestic city just like that. Zelos led the entire group into the king's chamber; none of the guards hesitated for a second to stop him.
Finally, Zelos was in the throne room. The moment the king looked at him, you could tell he was not pleased to see the Tethe'alla Chosen.
"What is it that you have come for now? If it's another one of those lawsuits, then forget it, I can't keep lending you my best attorneys," the king coldly said.
Zelos scoffed. "Relax. This time, it's not about a hunny."
"It's not?"
"Anything but. You see, we've got a little friend on some far-off world called Tiberia and he wants to do a lot of bad things, like kill innocent people because of something that happened a few thousands of years ago. I think it would…"
"Get to the point!" the king snapped loud enough to make everyone in the room jump.
"All right, don't lose your hair," Zelos said. "I want you to give me your entire army to lead into battle and stop this guy."
The king looked like he just caught Zelos in bed with his daughter. (which sometimes didn't seem too far off) "You must be joking!"
"Normally, I'm a joking kinda guy; but this time, I'm dead serious," Zelos said. His tone even got more serious with each passing word. "So, what is it? Ya gonna lend me your troops or not?"
"Absolutely not!" the king yelled.
"Maybe you were too distracted by my pretty face to hear me correctly," Zelos rudely said. "Are you going to give me your troops? Yes? Or No?"
The king realized Zelos wasn't about to accept no as an answer. "Fine! If it'll just make you leave me chamber, then take as many as you need!"
"Thanks, your majesty," Zelos said. "I always knew I could count on you." Zelos turned around to his friends. "Come on, guys. Let's scadoot."
The entire group walked out of the castle. Zelos stopped them all when they were all outside.
"Lloyd, take everyone and head to my mansion. You guys can stay there for tonight."
"Wait, where are you going to go?" Lloyd asked.
"I'm going to the military academy to round up all the soldiers for tomorrow's battle. I probably won't be back until late."
"All right," Lloyd said as he turned his attention back to the rest of the group. "Come on, guys. Let's get some shut eye. We got a huge fight coming up."
Lloyd led everyone into Zelos's mansion. He was soon greeted by the butler.
"Sir Bud, how good to see you again," the butler politely said.
"Er…thanks," Lloyd said, too tired and too occupied to really care to correct the butler on what he called him. "Zelos said that we could spend the night here."
"Very well, then," the butler said. "I shall select rooms for all of you to sleep in for the night."
Lloyd thanked the butler. In just a few short minutes, everyone was going into their own room to get their last night's sleep before the most decisive battle to be fought yet. And true to his word, Zelos didn't get back until hours after all of them had fallen asleep.
The next morning, everyone got up just as the sun was peeking its view out from the horizon. Most people would think it was a normally beautiful day, but knowing what was going to happen made it very scary.
Lloyd was the first to walk out of Zelos's mansion. He was greeted by seeing the faces of literally thousands of soldiers piled up outside Zelos's house and flooding the streets of Meltokio. None of them said a word.
Lloyd was awestruck with how many soldiers Zelos was bringing for this battle. He couldn't say a word, and neither did any of the soldiers.
Zelos was the next one to come out of the mansion. He went over to Lloyd's side and gave a confident, yet caring smile at him. Lloyd weakly smiled back and Zelos gave him a few pats on the back and started walking out of Meltokio and all the soldiers followed him.
Lloyd only could stand as still as a statue as he saw all the troops leaving as they followed Zelos. He watched as all his other companions for the battle: Colette, Genis, Raine, Sheena, Presea, Regal, Yuan and Zyn, all emptied out of the mansion and followed the soldiers. Ironically, Lloyd was the first one out of the mansion, yet he was the last to leave Meltokio.
Yuan pulled out his teleporter and they were all on Tiberia in a matter of moments. The sky seemed a brownish-orange, as the sun was just rising there as well. It definitely looked the way you'd expect a morning of a critical battle to look.
Just looking at everyone's faces gave Lloyd enough insight to know what they were thinking, and they were all thinking the same thing. Their facial expressions were clearly saying, "This is it. This is what it's all come down to."
Everyone was dead silent the entire march, though. The soldiers and their ten elites were making a steady march through the streets of Tiberia's towns as the approached the headquarters more and more. It would soon be time to begin the final battle.