Well, that went over well. I'm just popping in to say that I won't be saying much from now on…probably silent until chapter nine (except for that retroactive disclaimer, you all should memorize it).
Some chapters are going to be shorter than others and may seem fillerish, that's because when I originally wrote this, it was all in block format and there were no chapters. I had to split it up, and..well…some parts don't divide as well as others. And I'm still going to confuse/forget events, please don't hurt me. Just try to enjoy! –squeaks-
Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia. I wish I did ;-;
The next morning dawned bright and far too early, in my opinion. As I lay there on the ground with my arms over my head, Lloyd, Genis, and Colette sat nearby and mercilessly poked me with sticks.
"Get up!"
Poke.
A sleepy mumble. "...nnrgh..."
"Come on. Wake up!"
Poke.
"Heehee, this is fun!" Stupid Colette.
POKE.
"Aw, forget this. STONE BLAST!"
"...YEOW!" I was jolted up into the air by an explosion of pebbles and good-sized rocks right underneath my back, and only my blankets prevented several cuts and scrapes. Landing in a heap on the hard ground, I scrambled up and immediately started after the three stick-pokers, who would feel my wrath.
Meanwhile, as I chased the little hellspawns all over the place, Raine and Kratos proceeded to eat all our breakfast and look rather bored...
"Professor! Make her stop! She's gone mad!" Lloyd tried to summon Raine to his aid, but I tackled him into the ground...the result? An impromptu wrestling match, which ended with Lloyd sitting on me and aggravating all the bruises I'd no doubt gotten from Genis' Stone Blast earlier.
"Dammit Lloyd, get off me. What did you have for breakfast, cement?" I panted, feeling all my breath whoosh out under the swordsman's weight. Shoving upwards in a futile attempt, I moved myself up about two centimeters, and then dropped back on the ground, totally spent.
...curse that stupid gym class!
"Hmmm? No...I didn't have anything for breakfast, actually." Lloyd said, his face suddenly lighting up. "Hey Professor! What's for breakfast?"
"Nothing. We ate it all already." Raine grinned, rather sadistically. "And I suggest you get off Emily now before you crush her..."
"Too late." I wheezed as Lloyd got off me and I was able to push myself onto one knee, holding my chest. "I think I've just gotten about six inches flatter..." Lloyd, however, was not listening.
"Aww, Professooooor...c'mon. I'm hungry!" he whined. "I can't fight on an empty stomach!"
"Then make yourself a sandwich." came the snapped reply. "We're leaving for the Tower of Mana."
...the Tower of Mana? Oh crap...
"We're facing Iubaris!" I squeaked. If I couldn't beat the horse in the game, how was I supposed to do it in real life? I didn't even have a weapon or something like that to defend myself.
Raine jerked around to look at me. "You know about Iubaris?"
"More than I'd like to." I replied, motioning to Noishe in hopes of riding him. "His light attacks are nasty, and he's weak to darkness."
"Is he now...hmm..." Raine's face took on a thoughtful look, which I supposed was good news. Noishe finally came over, and after a nod of permission from Lloyd I hopped onto the protozoan's back. Noishe whined and wiggled his ears as I wrapped my legs as tight as I dared around his stomach. As a kid, I'd ridden horses bareback once or twice, but dogs...were a whole different subject.
"Hey." I looked over in surprise, Kratos was talking to me.
"What?"
"Catch." A small cloth-wrapped object was tossed my way, I leaned over to catch it and nearly fell off Noishe's back. Wriggling back into position, I unwrapped the cloth to discover a small sheath with a dagger handle sticking out of it. Grasping the handle, I gasped as a Hydra Dagger slid out, the light blue crystal blade gleaming in the sunlight.
"Kratos...this is..."
"The Hydra Dagger I didn't need, but somehow picked up in Luin anyway." he replied tonelessly. "I suspect that was your doing, so there you go." I gaped at Kratos, then the dagger, before putting it away and tucking it inside my jacket.
"Kratos...thanks." I sighed, giving a small smile before signaling to Noishe, and the dog trotted off after the party, which by now was walking across the plain towards the Tower of Mana. Along the way, I couldn't help but wonder if that was Kratos' way of apologizing... The Hydra Dagger was much more powerful than his current weapon, and it didn't seem to make sense for him to downgrade.
Thanks a lot, Kratos...you have no idea how much this helps.
----------
It took all of the morning and part of the afternoon to reach the Tower of Mana, during which I managed to pry a few tidbits of instruction from Kratos on how to properly use the Hydra Dagger to defend myself (or, at least, not kill myself with it while trying to defend myself). During that time, I discovered that while Kratos was normally cold and blunt half the time, he seemed quite amused at my attempts to perform techniques with the dagger.
"Your focus is weak, and your thrust isn't nearly fast enough." Kratos admonished me, for roughly the thirtieth time that day. "Put everything out of your mind except the target and your blade, and try again."
"You're got to be kidding me," I panted, giving Kratos a pleading look as I plodded along behind the party. Apparently, training with the Seraph included a lot of sparring, and it was really starting to wear me out. At this rate, I won't have enough energy left to fight Iubaris, I figured, chuckling at the irony.
I can see it now- I finally master the Sonic Thrust in the middle of a battle, and then Iubaris kills me. Oh joy.
"-what's so funny?" Kratos' voice snapped me out of my daydream. I looked up and sighed.
"Oh, nothing. Just envisioning my death at the hooves of Iubaris."
"Well, if you're done slacking, try again."
Try again. Right. I grumbled to myself, bringing the dagger up and holding it out straight in front of me, aimed for Kratos' stomach. Closing my eyes for a moment, I thought about nothing but my weapon and stabbing Kratty in the gut (which was NOT a pleasant thought for a diehard fangirl), then quickly snapped my eyes open and lunged.
There was an "Oof!" and a sharp clang, which lead to a moment of silence as the wind from my attack rebounded back at me, and I realized that Kratos had been forced to draw his sword to block my attack. Staring at the Hydra Dagger, I blinked and looked up at Kratos, who seemed somewhat surprised.
"Wow, Emily. You almost landed a hit on Kratos!"
Lloyd's exclamation snapped me out of my reverie as I jumped back, a little shocked at that fact. I, a fourteen-year-old weakling, had nearly got a Sonic Thrust on Kratos!
Dear Martel, what's wrong with me? This isn't normal...
"...indeed. It was a good hit." Kratos resheathed his sword and huffed slightly, taking a step back and turning towards the Tower, which was by now quite close. "A little slow and lacking technique, but decent enough that you'll survive the Tower of Mana."
"...gee. You always know just what to say, don't you?" I muttered, tucking away my dagger and running after the others, who had by now moved off again.
----------
Let's get one thing clear right now, folks. The Tower of Mana is scary. Not scary-weird, just plain scary. There are ghosts and specters and freakin' possessed TOYS crawling all over the place, and that alone is enough to make your skin crawl.
The only good thing about them is that you can snag a Black Quartz or two from them, and Iubaris is weak to darkness. Joy. Other than that, I was more than willing to call in the GhostBusters and let them do the work for me, like right now.
"Damn...Ghost...Sword..." I growled, blocking another swipe from the floating sword in front of me that was currently trying to go for my jugular, though it's target seemed to be changing from neck to belly. "Why will you not...fucking die...already!"
"ANGEL FEATHERS!"
A feathery cloud of pink and purplish halos zoomed past me, striking the sword and knocking it off target as it swooped in towards my stomach, so as I result, I got my side sliced up instead.
"Ow. Dammit..."
Reaching down, I gripped the demon sword by the hilt and yanked it out. Vibrating furiously, the evil sword snapped up and went right for my face, with only my faltering grip holding it millimeters away from gouging out my eyes.
Oh no you don't, you stupid sword. I just had these healed, and I don't want them screwed up again!
Gritting my teeth, I slowly yanked the possessed sword down to about my chest area, then stabbed down into the dark blade as hard as I could with the Hydra Dagger. There was a screech, and then the sword's blade shattered into pieces. Sighing, I let the hilt drop to the floor, where it slowly melted away into the ground.
Looking about, I realized that the one remaining Specter was toast with everybody ganging up on it, and headed over to help when pain lanced through my side. Looking down, it didn't take me long to realize that the upper left part of my pants was stained with blood oozing out from my recent sword wound, and it hurt. Grabbing my side, I went down on one knee with tears streaming from my eyes.
Martel, this hurt worse than the time I'd sliced my thumb open with a pocketknife, or broken my wrist, or fallen out of that one pine tree into a thorn bush...
"Oh no, you're hurt! Here..." Raine came rushing over, and lowered her staff against my side, whispering the words to First Aid. Familiar green light emerged from her staff, and then the wound was gone, the only thing remaining was a long scar.
"Raine...you're a lifesaver. Thanks." I gasped, wiping a tear from the corner of my eye and rising slowly to my feet, with some help from Colette and Genis. "And Colette, you probably spared my life with those angel feathers...you really are the Chosen One."
Colette went bright red and giggled. "Thanks! I guess I really am, aren't I?"
"No duh, dork." Lloyd sighed, shaking his head. "Sheesh, you'd think the first seal would have told her that..."
"Let's keep going." Man Kratos, the game never made you out to be this much of an insensitive jerk...how the hell did you ever end up with Anna anyway? Shaking my head, I realized that I was falling behind again and dashed off.
Thanks to my efforts twice before in the Tower of Mana, all the block puzzles and whatnot were already done, so it wasn't hard for us to reach the warp heading to the seal. Before stepping into the warp, I took a deep breath and suppressed an involuntary cringe. Fudge, but facing Iubaris in person would be hard...more terrifying than watching him on TV, that was for certain.
"Don't tell me your courage is failing you."
Slowly jerking my head around in annoyance, I glared at Kratos, who was standing behind me and waiting for me to hurry up and jump in the warp already. "No, it is not. I am merely preparing myself mentally so that when I face the Light Horse of d00m I don't have a fucking aneurysm." I growled. Kratos "hmphed", and I jumped into the warp.
It was cold on the steps leading up to the Tower of Mana. I waited with Lloyd, Genis, and Raine for Kratos and Colette to show up, and when they did we all headed up to the altar. Once at the top, Genis went into his usual rant about "powerful mana welling up", and then Iubaris appeared. The tannish-black pegasus snorted, then let out this sort of roaring neigh and charged, slamming into Lloyd and Kratos with his front hooves and heading right for the back of the line. That was bad.
Raine was working on a healing spell and Colette was praying to Martel, Genis was working on some sort of elemental spell and I- I was positively paralyzed. Iubaris was much, much bigger up close than I'd ever seen on a screen. Add that to his kickass intimidation factor and...yeah. I was so going to die now.
"Snap out of it!"
Holy crap, Kratos. The ancient mercenary dove in front of me and activated his Guardian, shielding us both from Iubaris' strike with a wall of mana.
"Pull yourself together!" He snapped, elbowing me in the side to remind me that I could move. Stumbling over to the left, I pulled out my Hydra Dagger and gulped, my mind having gone completely blank. Iubaris turned to swat at Lloyd with his tail while I stood there, shaking like a leaf, attack opportunities going right over my head.
"Stop shaking and hit him!" Kratos yelled, swiping at Iubaris' hind legs with his sword. It left a thin line of blood on the pegasus' flank, and the seal guardian neighed in pain.
"Bu- Wha- Alright!" For lack of anything better to do, I ran up and jabbed Iubaris in his hock, and the horse practically screamed. Wheeling, he glared at me with an evil light in his little red eyes, and my mouth went dry. Once more, I was rooted to the spot with fear as Iubaris lowered his head to display his horn and lunged.
...oh, shit. I'm going to die. Somehow, I knew this would happen...
"Focus!" Kratos yelled from behind Iubaris as he ducked under his spiked tail and slashed at his hindquarters. "Remember what you learned this morning!"
What I learned this morning...? Oh! Sonic Thrust! Nothing but yourself, the blade, and the target...
"Take this, horse." I muttered weakly, ducking under Iubaris' horn and lunging forward. "Sonic Thrust!"
Whump. Right in the nose.
Iubaris roared, louder than I'd ever thought possible for a horse. Just when I thought I'd go deaf from the noise he was making, Lloyd raced up.
"TIGER BLADE!"
Swip. Swop. Lloyd's twin blades sliced two very clean, deep lines in the side of Iubaris' neck, and then the guardian spirit went completely mad. Shaking my dagger out of his nose, Iubaris swung his head about and knocked Lloyd and I to the side with his horn, before kicking out with his hind legs at Kratos. Catching the mercenary in the shoulder, Kratos was also thrown to the ground, struggling to get up like the rest of us.
"...ow. Martel, that hurts." I gasped, trying to sit up and feeling immense pain throughout three of my left ribs. "I'm going to swear I broke something..." Lloyd, however, seemed completely unaffected as he got up, shook his head to get his bearings, then recollected his swords and went back to pounding on Iubaris. I watched him go, managing to sit up partway, but otherwise unable to move.
Snorting, Iubaris kicked off Lloyd, Kratos, and Genis, who'd dashed in for a quick hit, and then flew up into the air as something bright began to glow at the base of his horn. I gasped as I realized what was happening, and tried to ignore the pain in my chest as I started screaming at the others.
"RUN! GET UNDER IUBARIS! HE'S USING FORCE RAY!"
"He's using what?" someone, probably Raine, yelled as everybody began the mad dash to get underneath Iubaris. Gasping, I staggered to my feet and immediately grabbed my side as pain shot through, swift as a lightning bolt. There was no way I could get underneath the guardian in time...
Great, this time I'm going to die for real...AH FUCK I'M GONNA DIE! NONONONONONONONONONOOOO!
"Lloyd, help me!" Colette swooped down on her pink wings and grabbed me under the arms, lifting me up and half dragging me over towards the others under Iubaris. Right behind her was Lloyd, who starting shoving me in the back in attempts to make the evacuation go faster.
Between the two of them, I made it underneath the guardian's belly just in time, as a great beam of focused energy slammed into the area where we'd previously been. It carved a giant crater into the ground, throwing big chunks of rock into the air and blinding everyone for a minute.
I never got a moment to rest. The second Lloyd and Colette dumped me on the ground, Iubaris started dropping from the sky. I was in the process of screaming my damaged lungs out when Kratos grabbed me by the back of my jacket and threw me out of the way, towards the back of the battlefield where Raine and Genis were.
"Stay there! You're finished!" He yelled at me, and then carved a long slash down Iubaris' hip. I coughed, feeling dust from the air grate in my lungs as a familiar copperish taste appeared in my mouth. Blood.
Good grief, was I bleeding from the inside!
No, I winced, realizing what had happened, I just bit my tongue when Kratos threw me. Ow, dammit.
"Oh dear. Hold on, you're hurt pretty badly." Raine frowned, going to work with her staff again. I didn't need her to tell me that I was hurt, most likely I'd broken my ribs or something. The healing light flared out from Raine's staff, and I practically melted in relief. The pain was slowly going away, fading until it wasn't much more than a dull ache deep inside my chest.
"Am I healed?" I asked, taking a deep calming breath and then nearly choking on it as my lungs protested violently, pain reappearing again.
"Not quite. I got your ribs, but not your lungs." Raine replied, fishing around in her pack. "Here, eat this. It'll make you feel better." She held out a small, slimy red orb and deposited it into my hand. "Try and stay behind Genis and I, you'll be safer." With that said, she went back to healing Lloyd and Kratos as they hacked and slashed away at Iubaris.
"Thanks...I think." I muttered, looking down at the red thing in my hand. Apple gel. Gosh, did I really make the others eat these things? They're so...gross.
"Bottoms up..." I swallowed the gel. It was like eating a glob of shaving cream, sliding down my throat and leaving a distinctly nasty aftertaste with just a hint of apple. I gagged a bit, and then dragged myself over behind Raine to watch the rest of the fight.
Iubaris was finished, that much was clear. With each move, his reaction time became slower and hits less powerful, leaving Lloyd and Kratos more time to recover and strike back. Add that to Genis and Colette, who were casting spells and hacking away, and the giant horse was doomed.
"SPREAD!"
"PARA BALL!"
"CROSS THRUST!"
...Unison attack. Bombarded by lightning and water, Iubaris was paralyzed as Lloyd and Kratos cut through his back legs with their twin thrusts. Whinnying in pain, he slumped to the ground, strength gone, and began to disintegrate. The Light Seal's guardian was dead.
"Whew. Man, I'm beat." Lloyd muttered, wiping his brow as he cleaned his swords and put them away. I watched Kratos and Colette do the same, and then felt someone tap my shoulder.
"Genis?"
"You dropped this." He said, and held out my Hydra Dagger, stained with blood. I stared at it, then took it from him and shook it a bit, sending the thick crimson liquid everywhere.
"Genis, I owe you." I grinned, carefully shoving myself up from the ground and slowly walking over towards the altar, where Colette was currently praying to Martel. The minute she was done, her wings popped out again, and she hovered up in the air.
A shaft slid up out of the altar, and something started glowing in it. After a few seconds, an outline appeared, and I gasped. It was Luna, one of the Summon Spirits of Light.
/Where is Aska/ she lamented, looking down at us. /I can do nothing without him.../
"Probably out gallivanting around some Linkite Tree," I muttered as the Spirit vanished, to be replaced with a floating ball of light. There was a feathery burst, and then the angel Remiel appeared before us. The sight of him made me want to chop off his wings and stuff a feather pillow with them, but then came the reminder that I could beat his face in as much as I wanted when we hit the Tower of Salvation. Even though that could take a while.
"Colette, my daughter." she's not your daughter "You have done well in reaching this far. We of Cruxis will now grant you more angelic power." you mean you're going to make that crystal of hers grow faster so she can't sleep "Hurry and become a true angel. Do not disappoint me...my beloved daughter, Colette." ugh, I think I'm going to throw up. somebody get me a barf bag.
"Yes Father." Colette replied, and was engulfed in a swirl of light, which made her wings grow brighter and beat more strongly. Remiel nodded, and then poofed out in a cloud of feathers, leaving the rest of us to stare at Colette as she willed her wings back in.
"Well, let's be going." Raine sighed, walking away with Genis in tow. Kratos followed after, leaving Lloyd and Colette to help me with the walk down the stairs to the warp.
----------
As everyone was walking out the front door looking like Armageddon was about to arrive, I suddenly stopped with the memory of what was supposed to happen here.
"Guys, wait! Boltzman's book!" I yelled as loud as I dared, before walking over to a nearby bookshelf. Scanning the titles, I looked for one that was written in Elvish (or seemed to be written in Elvish, anyway). Up on a high shelf, an old blue novel seemed to have gibberish scrawled on the binding, so I reached for that one.
Just as my hand touched the book, there was a loud screech and what looked like black ooze swept out from around the books and descended on my hand. Yanking back with a yelp, I tried to shake the pestilence off, but it wouldn't relinquish its hold. A numbing, yet strangely burning sensation set in, and I reached for my Hydra Dagger with dread. Pulling out the blue crystal blade, I gulped, and then stabbed my hand.
My ears were assaulted with sounds of screams, mine and the black thing's, as it reformed right there in my palm into a sort of impish creature, a mix between a bat and raccoon. Squealing, it scratched me once or twice before beginning to fade, and I yanked out the Hydra Dagger, which hadn't gone too deeply into my skin.
"Emily! What's wrong?" Lloyd exclaimed, dashing in through the front door and over to the bookshelf, where I was trying to control the bleeding from my hand.
"Lloyd! I dunno...this black thing came out from around Boltzman's book and attacked me, so I stabbed it, and..." Looking down at my palm, I stared at the dark stone now sitting there where the imp had been. "And this happened..."
"Weird. It looks like an exsphere, almost." Lloyd mused, picking up the stone and looking at it before giving it back to me. I stuck it in my pocket, and then pointed up at the shelf.
"The book. Get it for Raine and she'll love you for life."
"Eew, I don't want that." Lloyd made a face as he grabbed the book and tucked it under his arm. "I just want better grades." Laughing, we both went out the front door to where the others were.
Once outside, we saw the others setting up camp and knew that Colette's Angel Toxicosis had set in. She was sitting on the steps watching Raine and Kratos make a fire, and looking rather forlorn. Her lips were blue again, I noted.
"Hey, Professor! We got Boltzman's book!" Lloyd called out, and Raine came over right away.
"You did? Good job, Lloyd. Wait a minute, you're hurt again?"
"I couldn't help it, Raine." I sighed, holding out my bloody hand. "Trouble just seems to follow me around..."
"You're worse than Colette," Raine muttered under her breath, and set about to healing my hand. In the meantime, Lloyd helped Kratos with the fire, and then sat back to enjoy the heat and complain that he was hungry.
When Raine was done with me, we both went over to the fire and sat down. I reached into my pocket, pulled out the rock I'd gotten earlier, and proceeded to stare at it. "Lloyd, do you think this is an exsphere?" I asked, after several minutes of nothing but staring.
"I dunno. It has a similar shape, but that's about it." he replied, reaching over to take the small blackish stone from me. "I've never seen one this color before."
"Where did you get that stone?"
"Kratos?" I looked up and over at him. Kratos was staring intently at the supposed exsphere in Lloyd's hand, and I had no doubts that he was definitely straining his angelic sight to pick out all the details. "This black-imp thing attacked me when I was getting Boltzman's book, so I killed it...and that appeared."
"Of course," Kratos sighed, running a hand through his auburn hair. "It's a Demon's Heart. I should have known."
"It's a what?" I took back my rock and looked at it. "I killed a demon?"
"Apparently." Kratos replied, looking a little bored now at having to tell campfire stories to kids. "You're lucky to have found it, though. They can be equipped like exspheres, but have different effects depending on the user. They work best on the person who killed the demon..."
"Is that so?" I mused, turning the heart over to study it from a different angle. "Lloyd, do you think you could make me a Key Crest?"
"That won't work." Kratos put in. "Ordinary Key Crests do strange things to Demon's Hearts, they make them unstable. You need a special kind in order to make them work properly." My face fell. Dang, and just when it seemed like my ticket to a life free of pain had arrived...
"However, if you want to equip it now, it won't hurt you. The Hearts are more stable than exspheres, and won't cause your body's mana to go out of control." Kratos continued, looking a little alarmed at my squeak of joy, and then he gave a little smile to himself, which nobody saw.
"Awesome! So, should I equip it now, or what?" I asked, turning to the others. Raine, who had been listening closely, frowned.
"I don't know. Kratos, what is the time that the Heart will remain stable?" Kratos looked up a bit, and shrugged.
"I'm not quite certain, though I am sure that she will be safe from harm for several months." he replied.
"In that case, go ahead." Raine nodded. "At this rate, it won't take us long to crack the other Seals, and then we can have Dirk look into making you a Key Crest."
"Alright. Here goes." I sighed, and pulled down the neck of my t-shirt a bit. Turning away from the boys, I placed the small black stone against my skin in the middle of my chest, just below where my collarbones met. The Demon's Heart did nothing for a moment, then glowed a bit and sank halfway into my skin, so that only part of the smooth black rock was visible.
I turned back around, and was met with grins of approval from Lloyd, Genis, and Colette. "Wow, that's so cool! I wish I had a Demon's Heart instead of an exsphere." Lloyd whined. I looked over at Kratos, who was giving Lloyd a dark look, and then I whacked the teenage swordsman lightly in the head.
"Don't talk about your exsphere like that. It probably has more meaning than you even know." I told him, and Kratos gave me a grateful look. I smiled back.
Yeah, I know...that one was for you, Anna.