The Temple of Fiends

Three and a half days…

That is all it had taken, even with one considerable rest per day.

Robin Magus forced herself to admit the usefulness of the white mage in shortening their travel time. Sana-Lynn's ability to wash away fatigue from the Light Warriors and their mounts had been a great help, and it had left only the white mage exhausted.

The rests had been more for Sana to recuperate then the others, since she could not mitigate her own fatigue, and Robin admitted that, just recently, she would have twisted this into an excuse for her to blame the other girl for slowing them down…

But that would have been foolish. She could see that now even if she disliked the other mage.

The blasted thief's constant need for attention threatened to infuriate her far more. She still did not understand how someone that had made a living off being stealthy and silent could be so loud and obnoxious.

Only the Chosen of Earth had shared her focus those three and a half days, yet unlike Robin having to constantly stamp down her impatience, Valor Loftlan had seemed solid in his focus. He reminded her of those of her tribe that had studied archery to become better hunters. He was like an arrow pulled taut and pointed unerringly at a target…

And that target was Garland of the Dark Sword.

During their rests, the warrior had said little, his face like stone. Even Gantz's taunting, which usually enraged him, had had no effect on Valor.

Robin had once thought herself the epitome of determined. It took a powerful will to keep the rage that came with the Blessing of Fire in check. She had even had to further suppress her power in order to help curb the fiery impatience and anger that had built up from so many delays… but Valor the last few days had outshone her in his drive to see Garland brought to justice.

The black mage sighed. 'Brought to Justice', his phrasing, of course. The city dwellers loved to dress up their justifications for what must be done with unnecessary moralizing. Garland threatened the whole world's existence; there was no need for 'justice'. Any threat to all of civilization must be annihilated. It was a simple matter of survival, nothing more, but city dwellers didn't understand survival like her people did, wrestling with their frivolous moral quandaries. Ah well, it aligned their goal with hers and that was good enough for now.

Regardless, Robin had been thirteen that last time she had ridden a Choc, or Chocobo, as Sana-Lynn had named them. The black mage would never admit it openly, but she liked that name better than the one her people had used for the giant birds. Frivolous minutiae, but there it was.

It had been five years since then.

Robin had gotten the feel for riding the animals again quickly. The birds were excitable and their enthusiasm could make them difficult to control except that Sana's mere presence had had a soothing effect that had made the birds even more amenable than she remembered. Robin had always figured that the birds had been bred as mounts, likely long ago between the Cataclysms that had scattered civilization over the course of the five millennia since the demise of Chaos. That is what she believed anyway, and it made sense. The animals were quite intelligent, and Gysahl Greens were plentiful enough that they could be used to entice the birds into being ridden. It spoke of the behavior having been bred into them some time in the past.

And there was the white mage's so-called Holy. Robin still couldn't fully understand such a power. She had barely been able to get a sense of it in the other girl before Sana's trial beneath the Citadel, not that she had ever bothered before. Now, however, this power was stronger within Sana and easier for Robin to get a measure of with her magical sense. It was utterly unlike the Blessing of Fire at first glance: soothing, quiet and serene. Robin would have scoffed at such a pitiful presence except that she had already been thwarted by its manifest spells and something else as well. Yes, its presence was what she would call the very definition of weak and yet something lingered beneath the surface of that initial impression. A power churned there, a remorseless unrelenting force that, if fully unleashed, could crush everything before it. It indeed felt like a form of rage that Robin could very well understand… and even respect.

The black mage shook her head as she rode. This power, though much more subtle than hers, could even be felt as kinship. Robin almost could not admit such a thing, even to herself… but still… the Blessing of Water could potentially cause destruction as easily as renewal, just as sometimes a fire was necessary to purge a forest of dead growth to make way for the new…

Balance… always there must be a balance, an equal and opposite reciprocation of forces. The world was currently out of balance and yet realignment was potentially in the offing with the arrival of Robin and the other three. She had been cognizant of that from her own presence ever since she had gained the Blessing of Fire as a child, but it had taken her awhile to finally admit that perhaps the others might be necessary as well.

Robin growled irritably. She hated reproaching herself. Too much introspection, no matter how necessary, made her lose focus, and as the four Light Warriors topped a ridge that overlooked a broad expanse of northern plains below, she summoned her fiery runes about her, instantly feeling a surge of rage. The summoned power burned through her being like a galvanizing wave and she suddenly laughed, more and more wickedly until she was belting out raucous gales that had the others looking at her askance. Indeed, had her glowing eyes been able to shed tears without burning them away instantly, she would have been crying as she laughed.

After she managed to stop, she cut the others with her gimlet gaze. "What are we waiting for, fools! The temple is there on the horizon, our prey inside. Let us be done with this!"

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Robin's laugh had a touch of madness to it, but Valor barely even noticed.

It was there in the distance, the Chaos Shrine or the Temple of Fiends, depending on which map you saw. Valor had seen a few, but had never been this far north. It was just on the cusp of Highland Kingdom at its very northern edge. Two days northwest from here would see one at the Point of Phemnal, which led to the isthmus between Highland and the Dragon Empire, but Valor had no room in his mind for the rugged northland empire.

He heeled his fierce mount into a trot and the bird quickly gained speed, heading down a natural incline that marked the end of the Warren Hills, and moving out into the gently rolling plains at the northern cusp of the realm.

Once down onto relatively flat land, Valor and the others heeled their mounts to full speed and the birds shot forward. He rode low astride the creature, its feathered wings covering over his armored legs. The bird's head had lowered against the pure force of wind that it sheered through; its strides lengthening until he swore the animal's feet must barely be touching the ground.

The birds moved like the wind, Valor even wondering if they were blessed like Gantz. The four even passed a copse of trees from which a squad of worg riding goblins emerged to give chase, but were instantly left so far behind that they should not have even bothered.

Gantz was whooping and laughing in glee, Sana in delight. Even Robin roared with wicked laughter from time to time, but Valor didn't make a sound.

His wind-swept hair had grown out a bit, once darker brown, but now lighter, especially with the alchemical coloring he had added to cover over his silvery highlights now fading. His blue eyes rarely blinked even with the winds that his mount parted through.

The four flowed out into the breadth of a swaying sea of tall grasses, the early spring day nice and cool. The tall animals moved through the grass without hindrance, almost seeming to hover just above them, their long scaly legs nearly covered.

Though easily half a day away on foot, only a few hours passed before the Chocobos starting leaping over lengths of low stone walls that had once marked the dimensions of an ancient city. The city itself was long gone with only the Temple of Fiends at its heart left in tact. None of the walls were high enough to present much obstacle and the bounding leaps the birds made to clear them were incredible. Each landed and shot forward again, barely breaking stride.

The ruins then became more substantial before Valor managed to bring his mount to stop. The others skidded to a halt near him, all the birds suddenly squawking and flapping in agitation.

Valor felt it too as he managed to dismount, looking upon the cracked and crumbling façade of the mighty ruined temple.

Sana-Lynn moved up to his side and he quickly handed her back her white staff. She smiled at him gratefully, though it quickly turned to a concerned frown as she gazed upon the temple. "Something here is… wrong."

Indeed, the great birds did not wait for any dismissal, they simply turned and fled back the way they had come and Valor wasn't sure he didn't want to follow them. He shook his head. No, he had never taken a backward step from his destiny and he would not start now. "It matters not, Sana-Lynn, we must proceed."

Gantz came up to his other side, gloved fists on hips. He gave a stark whistle. "Wow, this place feels—what's the bloody word—right, uh, unnatural. I don't suppose we can still turn back?" Valor merely glanced at him and he sighed. "Right, didn't think so."

Robin walked up to stop just before them all, gripping her charred rod in both hands before her. Under all her dark concealment, Valor could never get a glimpse of her expression, but her yellow eyes widened to glow balefully. "This place is far more than just cursed."

Sana stepped forward as well, squinting her amber eyes up at the ancient façade. "Yes, I get such an erroneous sense here… like it shouldn't exist at all, and yet, as if it is more real than anything around it. It just doesn't make any sense."

Gantz just shook his head. "Well, the bloody mages are brimming with confidence. That has to be a good sign, right?"

Suddenly something swooped overhead, and Valor's gaze immediately shot up to follow a great black shadow, summoning his bastard sword and shield instinctively.

The other three spread out a bit as well, Gantz drawing his daggers and Robin's electric blue runes flaring up about her.

A piercing roar sounded from overhead before something seemed to detach from the creature above. A black-armored figure then lanced down, falling nearly a hundred feet to land in a crouch on a small outcrop of stone just to their left.

Roughly ten feet above them, the figure stood in elaborate black plate-and-mail, the visor of his helm oddly molded to mimic what looked like the narrow snout of some dragon-like creature. A long scarlet cape flowed from his back, flapping gently in the day's soothing breeze. He held a wicked lance at his side, its spear-like point glittering in the afternoon light.

Only the man's mouth was visible, his lips pressed into a grim line. "It is no use, whoever you are. I have been here a week and have not found a single blasted entrance to this cursed place."

Valor went forward several steps. "You are armored as an Imperial Lancer. I would know what one of the Dragon Empire's elite soldiers is doing here?"

The dragoon pointed his wicked lance at the ruin. "Trying to find a way to get into that storm-blasted ruin, for I owe the one within a debt of vengeance to be repaid with blood! I I expect you are warriors from Highland seeking something similar."

The Chosen of Earth nodded. "We are the four Light Warriors, Chosen by the Elemental Crystals to combat the chaos encroaching upon this world."

The other crouched again, pointing his spear at them this time. "I am little familiar with the legends of Highland and care little for you or them in any case. Still, another four pair of eyes searching will be more effective than just my wyverns and mine. For now, I am willing to call a truce between us, Highlanders, if you but aid me in finding my way into this cursed shrine."

Valor banished his weapons. "As you wish, but only if you give me your word as a dragoon that you will not attack us."

The dragon-armored man gave an irritated growl, but quickly nodded. "Fine, then by my honor as Dragonfang, head of the Imperial Lancers, I give binding oath not to attack any of you."

Gantz shook his head with a small shrug. "You bloody nobles and your oaths. Can we start looking now? I'm hoping the inside feels more hospitable than the outside."

"Then you hope such a thing in vain, bandit, for the inside contains the horror we seek," the dragoon announced.

Gantz just winced. "Wow, you're a regular old ray of sunshine."

Robin tapped the crown of her charred rod in one hand. "Let us look about this ruin for its maw. If I must endure this foreboding, I would rather be enduring it inside."

Sana-Lynn simply nodded. "Yes, I want this ended as well and the sooner the better."

Grim faced, Valor nodded before them, just as his eyes climbed up toward the ruin again.

From this side it seemed just like a huge crumbling stone wall with four mighty statues carved at points along its cracked gray façade. The first was a ruined likeness of a massive cloaked creature with a horrid skeletal face. Roughly fifty feet right of that was another statue depicting a strange many armed serpent creature, its face cracked and crumbling, most its six arms missing their hands. Another statue depicted some great bulbous stone monstrosity with many shattered tentacles spilling in piles of ruin before the wall. The final statue depicted a five-headed dragon-thing, yet several heads were missing and one wing had crumbled almost to nothing.

As Valor came nearer the structure, nausea suddenly washed over his mind, attempting to daze him. His vision became blurred for a second before he shook it away. Robin shook it away as well, yet Gantz and Sana seemed in a stupor before the warrior put an armored hand on their shoulders to twitch them awake.

Gantz blinked his dark eyes a few times. "I really don't like this bloody place."

Valor raised an eyebrow at him. "You did not think this would all be goblin slaying and good times did you?"

The thief barked a mirthless laugh. "I haven't had any good times since I met you three."

Robin growled. "More searching, less blather!"

Gantz just rolled his eyes. "As you bloody wish, O' Shrouded One."

Valor went to move closer, when he noticed Sana seeming dazed again. However, as he went to give her another shake, she suddenly looked at him, pointing her staff and the flat stone wall just ahead. "The entrance is… its strange… its everywhere, but it keeps shifting. Can you not see it?"

Valor squinted at the ruined facade. "I see nothing resembling an entrance, Sana-Lynn."

Suddenly the girl stood rigid, her amber eyes widening. "I have been here before."

Gantz suddenly jerked upright from his inspection of the wall. "I have too."

Robin nodded. "Yes, this all feels familiar somehow. Time itself must be distorted around this ruin, almost like it exists in multiple places simultaneously."

Gantz glanced at her. "Wait, what does that even mean?"

She narrowed her glowing eyes at him. "As if I'd waste the breath. Just keep looking."

The thief growled. "You know, you're still plenty irritating at times, bloody fire-starter."

But Robin ignored him, running one hand along the outline of a mass of shattered stone tentacles beneath the bulbous third statue. The pile was huge, filled with cracked gray chunks twice the black mage's size. "I hear something. Come over and listen, all of you."

The other three did so, Gantz with an indignant shrug. As Valor neared the mass of crumbling stone tentacles, he did indeed hear a faint sound. It was almost like… music.

The longer he stood there, the louder it grew, becoming audible as a beautiful if simple melody tinged with sadness, and then something truly odd happened. As the warrior raised his eyes, everything around him seemed to… slow. He couldn't explain it, except that great heaps of stone suddenly lifted, and, in seeming reverse, slowly floated up to fuse into a whole intact statue, which revealed an entryway from which the eerily beautiful melody came from.

And then, between one blink and the next, Valor suddenly found himself inside a long hallway, with smooth walls of milky stone and glittering glass tiles beneath his boots. Immediately, he summoned his sword and shield, shifting uncomfortably in his armor despite it being like a second skin. He then turned to look behind him.

The exit behind the group was gone, just a dead end of milky white wall with inlaid friezes of bronze along the top and bottom.

Gantz had his knives out in a blink. "Okay I'm fast, but I usually still have to move between places before I get there. Anyway, so much for that bloody dragoon."

Sana-Lynn gripped her staff, looking startled. "Well, there is certainly no going back now."

"There never was, white mage, let us get on with this," Robin said.

Valor nodded before taking point and they moved cautiously down the hallway, the serene melody coming from everywhere and nowhere around them.

Gantz went on cat's paws, knives out at his side. "Nice tune, bloody wish I knew where it was coming from. Usually music needs, you know, musicians and the like."

Robin crept forward at his side, ever alert with her fiery runes blazing about her. "That is the least interesting thing about this ruin."

Sana-Lynn shook her head. "Interesting is not the word I would use to describe this place, Robin. We are currently traversing through a space that should not exist."

The black mage nodded, her glowing eyes fixed ahead. "Like I said… interesting."

After a time, there was an odd bit of distortion just down the hall and a sudden wave of six shambling zombies flashed into being. With wretched arms raised, the emaciated figures lurched forward with piteous moans as they sensed the living before them.

Before anyone could blink, Gantz darted forward, slashing one zombie across the chest, stomach and legs, before dodging back just as it grabbed for him.

The thief slid back toward the group. "Hmmm, guess my knives aren't very effective against these things."

With a roar, Valor summoned his heavy flanged mace in one hand before he charged the zombie that Gantz had just slashed at. He went in with a mighty full-arm swing to strike the undead square in the chest with a blow so powerful that it launched the creature back, spinning it end for end to slam against the wall where it splattered into a mass of broken body parts.

Gantz just whistled. "Well, that was certainly more effective."

Robin's eyes flared. "You two want effective, then get back now!"

The two backed away just as Robin brushed by, stretching out one hand to launch a roaring blast of flame that completely engulfed the last five wretched things, leaving nothing behind but wafting clouds of ash and a burnt smell in the air.

Valor saw the thief wrinkle his nose at the pungent smell. "Yeah, that was super effective."

The warrior nodded. "Yes, certainly more efficient that attacking them one at a time."

Sana had stayed at everyone's backs. "Look ahead, is that like a little room there at the corner?"

Valor went up, just to where the hall ended at a corner that turned to their right. At the bend, the corner expanded out to contain a little room with an archway as an entrance.

Gantz ran ahead and peeked through the entryway before Valor could catch up. The thief rubbed his gloved hands together. "Oh, hey, a treasure chest."

The warrior shook his head. "We aren't here for treasure, thief."

Sana-Lynn went in passed the two, seemingly curious. "Why is there a chest in this place? It seems a little odd to me."

Robin went up next to her. "This whole place is odd, white mage, why should a chest here be any stranger to us?"

The white mage hunched her shoulders. "Perhaps, but I still do not like it." She paused to look at the thief. "Be careful, Gantz, something about this feels wrong."

The thief gave her a grin. "Oh trust me, Sana, I've had my share of run-ins with trapped chests. I won't touch the bloody thing until I search all sides for any hint of a concealed mechanism that could indicate something fishy."

Before the thief could get any closer, however, Valor went forward, dismissing his mace and shield to summon his long-hafted halberd. "One second, thief."

Gantz stopped short. "Now what, blue blood?"

Without answering, Valor suddenly jabbed the piercing point of the halberd's blade into the side of the chest and the thing suddenly screamed, the lid opening like a mouth filled with serrated teeth, black tendrils shooting out to grasp the offending weapon, which Valor wrenched away easily with his strength.

The thief had flipped backward immediately after the screech, putting himself well out of reach of the thing's flailing tendrils. "What in the holy hellfire! Never seen a bloody trap like that before."

Sana-Lynn nodded. "A mimic."

Valor planted the butt of his weapon next to him. "I have never heard of such a creature, but I saw something, a barely perceptible twitch."

Robin had already moved up next to Valor, her electric blue runes crackling about her. "I wonder if it likes lightning." She stretched out a hand and a blue-white stroke of power flashed out striking the thing square its chest-like middle.

The thing suddenly shrieked, its tentacles twitching wildly before it suddenly turned back into a slightly singed chest.

The thief stayed where he was. "Did that kill it?"

Robin shook her head. "I never assume anything is dead until it is ash." Her runes switched to those of writhing orange fire.

However, before she could summon a ball of flame, the creature acted, a single tendril twice as long suddenly shooting out to wrap about the black mage's legs and pulling her down before quickly dragging her into its waiting toothy maw.

It happened so fast that only one of the four could react in time.

Like a blur, Gantz went in with his knives, slicing through the tendril so that Robin was able to scramble away, before Valor charged in with his halberd, hacking down with its axe-like blade to slice at the monster. The powerful blow struck the creature, shattering its 'lid' and it writhed and wailed, but did not die.

"Bloody thing is tough," Gantz said with a tight nod.

Getting back to her feet with a slight limp, Robin snarled. "Not nearly tough enough!"

The thing seemed to become slightly amorphous then, screeching and wailing in inhuman tones. Only hints of its previous disguise still existed.

Cold blue runes suddenly flared up about the black mage like a frozen nimbus. Flakes of snow formed in the air as she stretched forth a hand once again, this time to summon a chilling vortex that whirled toward the monster.

Struck with the arctic blast, the thing writhed in agony. Still, within only a matter of seconds, it succumbed to the freezing blast, frozen nearly solid.

Valor wasted no time, banishing his halberd and bringing forth his wicked steel maul. He went up with a great overhanded blow, shattering the creature into a million pieces and even cracking the glass tiles beneath it.

Surprisingly enough, a shower of gil also sprayed from the shattered monster and Gantz grinned in delight before unlimbering his small pack to gather it up.

Banishing his maul for his mace and shield, Valor raised an eyebrow at the thief. "Hold on, Gantz, that should be shared between all of us."

The lean young man froze in the middle of stuffing coin into his pack. "Why of course, Val, but we can do that later when were not in a creepy dungeon. Just think of me as the pack mule for now. We can deal with the little things later."

The warrior narrowed his blue gaze at the thief. "You are hoping we will forget about it by then. I know you are, Gantz, and you'll not hesitate to keep it all for yourself."

The other just gave him a toothy grin. "Well golly, Val, why in the realm would I do that? I mean, its not like I'm a bloody thief or anything."

The Chosen of Earth just pinched the bridge of his nose.

Sana stood after healing Robin's wounded leg from where the mimic had grabbed her. "I don't really have anything to carry gil in anyway, Valor."

Robin stood and righted her tall peaked hat. "The fool monkey can keep the blasted coin for all I care. We have bigger fish to fry, Chosen of Earth."

The warrior nodded sharply. "Indeed, we do at that." He took point again, leading the way out of the small chamber and back into the hall, his boots tapping across the glimmering tiles that made up floors of this strange place.

The Light Warriors moved forward cautiously again in a tight cluster, alert for more monsters to simply pop out of another wave distortion. Instead of more monsters, however, they came to pass a number of ornate statues carved from golden marble to resemble men in ancient suits of armor, holding spears to their sides.

Valor eyed the statues wearily as he passed them.

Gantz spoke behind him. "Hey, Sana, can those mimic things look like statues?"

The white mage was silent for a bit. "I remember reading something about them being able to take on the appearance of any inanimate object of roughly the same size. They usually try to copy the appearance of something valuable in order to lure in prey."

"Gotcha," the thief said, his dark eyes locked on the statues, no doubt for signs of twitching.

No one spoke again until they had all past the statues without incident. Not long after that they came to a pair of large bronze double doors, heavily engraved with disturbing images of voracious monsters devouring each other in some unending cycle of madness.

Sana gripped her staff tightly. "Well, this has to be it."

Robin's eyes glowed ferociously as her whole body shook. "Oh, it has been interminable, but finally—finally!—this blasted quest is about to end!"

The white mage shook her head worriedly. "Yes, one way or another."

Valor's gaze hardened as he ran it over the demon-carved doors again. "Worry not, Sana-Lynn, we will slay the fiend here and claim justice for his victims."

Gantz gave a wicked grin, twirling his knives in his hands. "Well, Sir Muscles, open these bronze bastards up so we can deliver Garland his belated beat down!"

The warrior did not hesitate, banishing his weapons to put his armored hands against the cool surface of the mighty bronze doors. As big as they were, it took all his considerable strength to open the things, which finally ground inward against the floor until there was enough of a gap for the Light Warriors to slip into the throne room one at a time.

Once inside Valor failed to notice the grandiose splendor of the chamber when his blue eyes fell on a tall, wickedly armored figure standing in its middle. "Garland!"

The monstrous black knight gave a wild laugh; accompanied by shrieks and wailing that caused odd distortions to pulse about the chamber. "Ah, the time has finally come. You have no idea how long I have waited for this reunion, Chosen of the Dawn. Now—Have at you!"