The chase was on inside Tower Tiberia. Tower Tiberia didn't look like anything amazing. In fact, the building itself looked very basic in design. For the first several floors, there was nothing inside the tower aside from a winding metal staircase that seemed to lead up and up.
"Hurry!" Zyn yelled as he jumped in front of Lloyd and Yuan. "I'll lead the way up the tower. I know it best, after all."
Lloyd and Yuan agreed to Zyn leading them up the tower without second-guessing it for a second.
The trio made their way up the long, twisting metal stairs as they climbed higher and higher up the tower. The sounds of the swords clashing, people screaming as they got killed or severely wounded and the sounds of powerful spells striking people could be heard, even through the thick stone walls of Tower Tiberia.
Finally, after several floors, the metal staircase came to an end. Right in front of the trio was a long hallway with a dirty and stained wooden floor and blank white walls on the side.
Lloyd, Zyn and Yuan all started running through the halls, taking very sharp corners and having to make sudden turns. All three of them stopped dead in their tracks when they came to a four-way split.
"Great," Lloyd complained. "Now where are we going to go?"
"Couldn't we all split up?" Yuan suggested. "It's not a very hard thing to do, you know."
"I guess we have no choice," Zyn said. "Fine. I'll go to the left. Lloyd, you take the middle and Yuan can have the right."
"Since when do I take orders from you?" Yuan asked stubbornly. One look at Zyn's serious and annoyed face changed his mind. "Fine, if you want me to go right, I'll go right."
"Okay," Lloyd said. "In case I don't see either of you again, good luck fighting Tiberius."
"You too, Lloyd," both of his allies said.
And with that, the trio parted ways and were soon acting on their own instead of as a group.
As Lloyd ran up the long, empty hallways, he started getting concerned when he saw no sign of Tiberius or anyone else at all. Even though the building didn't seem to be very large (apart from its height) it didn't look like Tower Tiberia would be a hard thing to get lost in, but now Lloyd was having second guesses.
Lloyd continued running, trying his best to keep up all the energy he had and making it last as long as possible.
His run suddenly ended when he came to yet another fork in the halls. He stopped and started breathing heavily. He looked at how he once again had to choose from two other paths and he wondered which would be the best one to take. But if he was wrong this time, there was no telling what the consequences would be.
But he didn't have to think long. In a short while, Zyn started running from one of the other paths, and his path instantly crossed with Lloyd's.
"Lloyd?" Zyn asked. "What are you doing here?"
"This is where my hallway ended up taking me," Lloyd explained. "Is that the same for you?"
"Yeah," Zyn said.
Only moments later, Yuan came bounding down from the third hallway. Apparently, it didn't matter which way any of them went if they were all going to wind up in the same spot again.
"Heh," Yuan snickered. "Here we are as a group again. Where do you propose we go now, Zyn?"
"I think we should all go straight," Zyn said.
"Hey Zyn, didn't you say you knew this tower well?" Lloyd asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Well…then how come you didn't know that we'd all wind up in the same place if we took the different routes?"
"You know, I always just went straight," Zyn said. "Whenever I had to come this high up, which was usually rare, I just went straight and that took me right to the rest of the tower. Of course, there's no telling if Tiberius was really running ahead, which is why I had us all break into separate groups."
"Can we just stop talking and get moving?" Yuan asked. "Tiberius could be doing something very dangerous now and we need to stop him.
"You're right," Lloyd admitted. "Let's scram!"
The three of them were once again running together through the long corridors of the tower. They were all searching for Tiberius, hoping that if they defeated him, then the battle would be won.
As they continued running and the final battle got closer and closer, Lloyd started thinking. He started thinking about how everything was leading up to this moment. He thought of Stromm, Kayne, Skelter, Cesara, and now, unfortunately Kratos-all of whom died over the course of Lloyd's new journey. It never ceased to amaze the eternal swordsman of how simply getting knocked off track by a pirate could result in such a heart wrenching journey.
But Lloyd still had to keep his focus. He may have been in the very building where the final battle was going to take place, but the battle itself had yet to be fought. But that was all about to change.
As the group took the corner hallway, they saw a dead end in front of them that led to an elevator shaft. And standing at the elevator was none other than Tiberius himself.
Instead of saying anything to them, Tiberius just turned around and hit the button next to the elevator. Instantly, the metal doors opened and Tiberius ran inside, and then promptly slammed the button to close the doors.
The trio ran as quickly as they could to hop in the elevator, but they were just too late. Just as they arrived at the door, the doors closed on them. They all heard the elevator start heading up the shaft, leaving all three of them looking disappointed.
"Don't tell me it ends here," Zyn said, looking at the elevator doors. "Don't tell me we came all this way just to be shut out here…"
"Quit whining," Yuan said. He crossed his arms and his angelic wings suddenly sprouted. He started flapping in the air with them, then forced the elevator doors opened, revealing the giant, empty shaft. "Lloyd, sprout yours."
Lloyd obeyed Yuan and sprouted his own wings. The bright colors of their wings seemed to give Zyn hope, for some reason.
"Zyn, I don't suppose you can fly?" Yuan asked.
"No," Zyn said, embarrassed. "No, I can't."
"Then you'll just have to wait and let Lloyd and I finish the job," Yuan said calmly.
Saying this, Yuan started flying up the empty elevator shaft in pursuit of the elevator Tiberius was on. Lloyd followed, leaving Zyn standing there, unable to do anything.
While Zyn could only helplessly stare at the busted elevator door, Lloyd and Yuan were flying right beneath the elevator car Tiberius was in. Yuan held out his and started forming a ball of energy in it. When it was charged enough, he fired it through the floor of the elevator car and created a huge hole in it.
Unfortunately, Tiberius wasn't standing in the part that got blown open. Instead, he was safe in a corner of the elevator. And Tiberius was thankful that he wasn't standing above Yuan's blast; because not only did it have enough power to blow a hole through the bottom of the car, but it even kept going and blew open the top of it as well.
The elevator car was now going much slower, but it was still going up the shaft to where Tiberius told it to go.
In just moments, Lloyd and Yuan flew through the blown open hole in the car and were now inside the elevator with Tiberius. Tiberius's cold stare glared at them as they both started to get in their battle positions.
Without saying a word, Lloyd and Yuan pulled out their swords and got in their fighting stances. Tiberius pulled out his giant sword and a nasty sneer started spreading across his pale and cold face.
Lloyd jumped right in front of Tiberius and started violently clashing his material blades against his giant blood-stained sword.
Lloyd was surprised to see that his swords could even hold up against the magnitude of Tiberius's blade, but apparently, they were.
Just as it looked like Lloyd was about to get fatally wounded when Tiberius lunged at him with his sword, Yuan jumped in and blocked Tiberius's swing with his own sword.
In just a few seconds, Yuan and Tiberius were fighting while Lloyd was trying to recover his strength. When that finally happened, he saw Yuan was doing a fairly good job of holding Tiberius off.
When Lloyd finally started being able to fight again, he helped Yuan close in on Tiberius in a corner. Tiberius knew the magnitude Lloyd and Yuan could fight with, and the look of worry and horror was obvious on his face as he was backed into a small part of the elevator with no escape.
"It's over, Tiberius," Lloyd said as he got ready to stick his vorpal sword right through Tiberius and impale him into the wall of the elevator.
Making one last desperate attempt, Tiberius looked up.
"Not on my watch," Tiberius said in his plain and uncaring voice.
Saying this, Tiberius jumped into the air and out of the car. He landed on top of the elevator through the hole that Yuan created when he attempted to kill Tiberius just a few moments before.
Lloyd and Yuan both jumped out through the top hole as well, and the three of them were now battling on top of the elevator car as it continued to go higher and higher.
Lloyd and Yuan both teamed up and started fighting Tiberius, but Tiberius seemed as determined as ever and he obviously wasn't going to go down until he was officially dead.
Tiberius made a surprise attack and smashed the back of Lloyd's head with the handle of his sword. Lloyd moaned in pain as he lost his stability for a few moments and fell through the hole on the top and back into the elevator.
In fact, Lloyd had such rotten luck that he fell right through the whole in the bottom of the elevator. He was now falling towards the bottom of the elevator shaft, which would kill him on impact if he didn't do something.
With only moments left, Lloyd sprouted his angel wings and started flying back up through the elevator shaft. He passed right through the hole in the bottom of the elevator and went right through the one in the top as well.
Tiberius was shocked to see Lloyd come back so abruptly and so quickly that he didn't have any time to react. Lloyd took advantage of this by punching Tiberius in the face so hard that he got knocked onto his back.
As Tiberius struggled to get up, Lloyd drew both of his material blades and got ready to stick them both through Tiberius, but at the last second, Tiberius stuck his leg up and kicked Lloyd in the stomach.
Lloyd was sent backwards and off the edge of the car. Just as he was about to fall to the ground below, Yuan reached over at the last possible instant and grabbed Lloyd's ankle to keep him from falling. He pulled Lloyd back up on top of the car, but Lloyd didn't have time to thank him.
When Yuan had safely pulled Lloyd back on top of the car, they looked and saw Tiberius jumping off and inside the elevator. The doors to the elevator opened up, meaning they were on the floor Tiberius was trying to reach now.
Tiberius immediately seemed to know where he was going. He bolted out of the elevator car and started running up a long metal flight of stairs that seemed to go all the way to the top of the tower. (apparently, the elevator didn't go to the top-possibly for security reasons)
Lloyd and Yuan jumped out of the elevator as well and were heading for the flight of stairs Tiberius was running up.
It was clear Tiberius had a huge lead during the chase. He was several floors higher than Lloyd and Yuan, but they both tried running their hardest up the long, seemingly endless flight of stairs and hoping to catch him.
During that time, it was made obvious that Lloyd was a lot faster than Yuan was. Because of this, Lloyd was almost a full floor ahead of Yuan as the hot pursuit continued.
Finally, Tiberius reached the highest floor. He ran into a room at the end, and the room appeared to be some sort of control room.
Lloyd reached the top floor just as Tiberius made it inside the control room. Tiberius went over to one of the controls and slammed down one of the buttons on it. Instantly, heavy metal doors started closing that would separate Lloyd from Tiberius in the control room.
Lloyd made a great leap and just barely made it in the control room before the doors would have slammed and probably amputated any part caught in it. Yuan, however, was just too late.
Just as Yuan made it to the doors, they completely shut on him, locking him out of the control room. He started banging on the door with his sword and tried to blast it open with magic, but the metal door was virtually indestructible. There was no way it was breaking open.
"Damn!" Yuan said when he realized it was just Lloyd alone in the control room of Tower Tiberia with Tiberius. "Come on, Lloyd. Don't let us down."