-- It's been a long wait, but I reward your patience with a long chapter. Actually, half of this chapter isn't even proofread. And, just a forewarning, some actions will not be written as they happened in the game.--
The interior ruins yielded the same expressions and reactions the outside did. As soon as we passed through the stairwell, Estellise wandered off to the cliff to behold the enormous caverns.
"Wow!" She said excitedly. "This is my first time being inside ruins!" Overcome by wonder, she trotted over to the stairway a little too quickly.
I started running down the stairway to stop her in her tracks before she decided a tumble down the cliff face was in order. "Be careful over there. It's slippery."
Estellise turned around to look at me, then looked down at her feet, noticing the damp moss-covered stone. I sighed. Honestly, this was like babysitting toddlers.
I felt Yuri's eyes burning into my back, so I turned to face him. "What are you looking at?" I demanded.
"I was surprised. You're actually a nice person." He explained, shrugging lightly.
I frowned at him, turning back around and uttering a small "Tch." as my reply. I began my walk towards the stairs, muttering softly. "I knew bringing you along would be a pain. I should've come by myself."
"But you didn't." Yuri replied, completely defeating the purpose of my repressed volume.
"Wh-…" I attempted to shoot back, but I realized I was temporarily out of ammo. I did, after all, force them to come along. "So what? I lobbed out instead, knowing full well that it was a pitifully weak response.
"Come on every body, let's go further in!" Estellise shouted. For now, I was saved the rest of that conversation with Yuri.
I was not saved his self-satisfied smirk.
We trekked further inside of the cavernous architecture, surrounded by the sounds of a nearby waterfall and stone grinding tirelessly against stone. Loud, pounding sounds echoed from the unseen antechamber, deep within the earth. Various slick-skinned beasts hopped and slithered across the wet stone surfaces beneath our feet, eyeing the intruders with suspicion.
"Wriggly and slimy as they are, they're almost kind of cute…" Estellise mused quietly, scanning the area with her eyes.
I looked at her with disbelief. "Cute? Are you serious?"
She smiled back at me. "Yes! Look at their eyes, and they make such cute noises!"
I'd never thought about that, honestly. The monsters in here all looked the same: beady eyes, aquatic features, and an annoying croak-like squeak that only made me want to kill them more.
"I don't know. I don't see it." I said, frowning.
"Oh, well." Estellise smiled sheepishly.
I took a good, long look at one of the creatures. They were ugly things, covered in tattered fins and staring back with those black, beady eyes. To me they looked wet and slimy. I really couldn't see "cute".
"You're crazy."
As I turned away from her, I noticed Karol running off ahead. He stopped, looking up at the towering blastia in front of him. "This one still has a core in it." He commented, surprised.
The rest of us moved over beside him, staring at the core for a few seconds. I'd used this same switch before dozens of times in the past. I pulled my ring off my finger and slipped it onto Yuri's finger. "Use this."
He held up his hand, eyeing the ring suspiciously. "…what?"
I frowned at him in reply.
"…Looks like this thing is set with a blastia core or something."
"It's a sorcerer's ring." I explained, but I didn't get far because Estellise interjected with an explanation of her own. Something about the ring being used to power blastia?
"Not quite. It more or less directs aer to blastia as a trigger."
Yuri moved his arm and pointed the face of the ring at the ball within the tower. "So I just point and shoot?"
I nodded. "Just make sure you aim at the core itself." I said, moving out of the way. Estellise, Karol and the dog copied me, scooting off to the side as well.
"Come on, hurry up!" I snapped.
"Hey, let me try!" Karol demanded.
Hell no. You're not touching my ring, kid.
"Oh, this is so exciting!" Estellise bubbled. I drove my face into my palm, and missed Yuri taking the shot. The core glowed a bright blue, and the ancient crest wrote itself into the air.
"That's a strihm crest. It's a mark that indicates movement." Estellise explained.
The rocks behind us started to move, and the center of the ruins shifted as well, creating a rocky stairwell up to the next level. Even as the path locked into place however, stones continued to shift, and as rubble clattered over the edges of stone into the water below, we turned around to face new creatures lumbering around us slowly.
"Wh-what are those?" Karol stammered, pointing at the walls. There were huge dents left in the stone as a trio of golems patrolled the path.
"Just sentinels. They take care of unwanted guests. They're easy to outrun." Karol looked at me, knees shaking and nearly ready to fall over.
Yuri put a hand on Karol's shoulder, as if to comfort the poor child. "Come on. Just keep your eyes open and keep moving."
"Are you sure?" I asked, in a semi-mocking tone. "What if I'm just leading you deeper into the ruins to 'zap' you?"
Yuri wasn't amused. "I'm starting to think the golems are a better option." He walked over to me and tried to force the ring back into my hand.
"No, you keep it!" Truth be told, he was standing a bit too close for comfort. Something told me this guy wasn't used to the concept of 'personal space.'
"Isn't this supposed to be important to you?"
"We'll need to use it a few more times." I handed the ring back to him and he slipped it back onto his finger.
"I guess I better hold on to it, since I'm leading…"
Aside from the occasional fight with the disgusting fish-monsters (much to Estellise's horror) the journey to the back of the cave was quiet.
In fact, it was a lot quieter than any of MY trips. The sounds of Goliath's patrolling footsteps were now absent, and I started to tremble nervously. What if something had happened to him? He's been wandering that same platform for hundreds of years. There was no possible way he could have destroyed himself.
As we entered the antechamber, I could see the motionless Goliath in the distance, slumped over on the ground. 'How!?'
I took off ahead of the others, ignoring their protests. The only thing that stopped me was the water that blocked my way.
"Hurry up! Hit the switches!" I called back. He must have understood how urgent this was, because Yuri disappeared around the corner. A few seconds later, the first half of the bridge rose from the depths of the moat.
"There's another one over there." I told him. Yuri ran off behind me to activate the second crest, just as the rest of the group was catching up.
"What's going on, Rita?" Estellise chirped, her voice quivering.
"I have a few theories…but I hope they're all wrong."
The bridge completed itself, and I took off at a sprint across it, stopping in front of Goliath's lifeless remains.
I stood there, staring, unsure of whether I should panic or celebrate. He'd stopped moving, but appeared undamaged.
"Whoa, what is this thing?" Karol gasped.
Yuri joined us, inspecting Goliath closely before grunting in frustration. "What I want is the aque blastia, not this puppet." He actually had the audacity to kick the poor thing!
"What are you doing? Don't kick him like that!" I snapped at him. Yuri stepped back a few feet as I started to climb up Goliath's back, anxious to finally complete my formula. I reached the core compartment and my jaw dropped.
"No, the core is missing!"
I couldn't bring myself to move. Who in the world could have done this? It was horrible!
"Hey Rita." Yuri's voice knocked me from my trance. "I think some of your friends are here." Yuri pointed up at a ledge and I directed my gaze at the neighboring ledge, just in time to witness a figure clad in robes move behind a pillar.
I jumped from Goliath's back and moved in closer.
"Hey, who're you?" I yelled up at the figure. He peeked out nervously and immediately stuttered an excuse.
"M-me? I'm just a researcher from Aspio!"
"I'm definitely convinced." Came forth Yuri's dry sarcasm.
"What about you? This place is off-limits!" He accused.
I smirked at the intruder, hands on my hips. "I think you just gave yourself away." I saw it recoil backwards at my words. "If you don't know who I am, you're no mage of Aspio!"
"Guess she has no problems with modesty." I heard Karol comment. I turned back to fire a glare at the boy, inwardly laughing as he fled behind Estellise.
The figure started muttering to itself, and I looked up at Goliath as the machine roared to life. That idiot had replaced the core!
"Ahh, it's moving!!" Karol screamed
As I started to move away, I felt Goliath's arm connect with my body, sending me flying through the air. A stunning pain shot through me as I crashed into a pillar, my weakened body falling limply to the floor.
The last thing I saw was Estellise running towards me as the rest of my world rapidly faded into darkness.
I couldn't have been out for very long. When I awoke, the pain had completely subsided and my head was filling with Goliath's angry roars.
My eyes opened only to stare into the bright green eyes of Estellise. My gaze wasn't held there long, because I noticed her bodhi blastia.
But.. No way! I grabbed her hand to examine it. There was no way she could have healed me. Not like that!
"How did you...?" I couldn't finish. Estellise yanked away her wrist.
"I was only trying to heal you."
"Hey, stop playing around and help us!" Karol shrieked, dodging a blow from Goliath. I growled, getting up and running off towards the bridge.
"Alright, I'm going after that idiot! Stay here and take care of this!"
"What do you mean?" Yuri protested. "How are you gonna get through?"
I swore, turning around to face the awakened sentinel. Flames danced in my hands as my fireball spell began to power up.
"We'll just have to play with this wind-up doll for now." Yuri said. I cursed him in my mind. Even if this was a life-or-death situation, I wouldn't tolerate the abuse of Goliath, verbal or otherwise.
But now, I didn't have a choice. I was going to have to hurt Goliath. I never though it'd come down to this..
"Just be careful! He doesn't know how to go easy on people!" I warned in vain. I knew they wouldn't lighten their attacks.
"We still have to teach it a lesson." came Yuri's reply.
Oh God, how I didn't want to.
Goliath's attacks came at us, swift and powerful. The others fought back with the same fire, but I couldn't bring myself to hurt Goliath. My spells lacked the spark they usually had, and I found myself struggling to recite the incantations.
Goliath eventually fell to the ground in a position similar to when his core had been removed. I sadly walked over to the object of my studies, staring into the broken lights on his face.
"Now... to cut the power supply." I waved my hand, bringing into view the control screen of the core. I typed in the code, and the power faded away. Goliath would never move again.
I fought back tears.
"I'm sorry."
With that, any reason to come back vanished. My formula was left incomplete, these ruins carving a painful scar into my mind. Goliath survived for all these years, and finally he had died for nothing.
I heard footsteps behind me as they started to move away from me. "Rita? Come on!"
That obnoxious kid's voice, along with the mutterings of Yuri and Estellise as they pondered the fate of Flynn, shattered my moment of silence.
I took one last look at Goliath and ran to catch up to the group.
"If I'd just had some more time…I could have finished my anima formula!" At least then, Goliath's death wouldn't have been in vain- as horrible as it was to make that rationalization.
"Is THAT why we were fighting that thing?" Karol screeched at me.
"Of course." I didn't look at him, instead staring onward into the corridor.
Karol's reply was delayed, but he did manage to squeak out, "You suck!" What a great reply, that was. He was a genius. No, seriously!
"You were already here for the thief! I just enlisted your help a bit." I smiled at him. Karol uttered a near inaudible insult.
"Come on, let's go already!" Yuri called from the front.
And then I wondered why we were walking when that thief could be outside already.
Author: And all I have to say is "lol"