The Thirteenth Order
Chapter XIV: More Exposition
Everyone groaned. They all slowly stood to their feet, shuddering as the excess amounts of electricity coursed through their bodies.
Zero sighed. The others wanted to battle him, due to the intense ass kicking he gave them all the last time he was at the castle. He obliged, quickly launching a massive wall of fire at his opponents, then dousing it with a torrent of water, kicking up a dense field of steam. As his opponents tensed, none of them thinking to try blowing the steam away, they all noticed a flash of golden yellow light…before they were knocked off their feet, all of them feeling a burning sensation all over their bodies, and blacking out.
"There, we fought, I won. You happy now?"
"The hell?! That wasn't a fight!" Leon was agitated. "Stop playing around and get serious!"
"You don't want that."
Cloud scoffed. "What's the matter, can't win?"
Zero glared at Cloud. "I wouldn't be talking Mister Compensation. You can't even beat Sephiroth without resorting to over the top moves. But fine, you want serious?"
He set his eyes on Aerith. "I'll give you serious."
The brunette tensed, watching Zero approach slowly. Suddenly he flickered out of view. She felt a strange tingling feeling all over her body for a moment…and then he reappeared behind her, still walking at the same pace. He stepped maybe a few paces away from her…and then snapped his fingers.
Aerith jumped in fright as hundreds of red lines appeared all over her body. She looked at her hands, her arms, even her legs and dress was covered in red lines and dots.
Cloud growled. "What did you do to her?"
"Kairi."
The redhead looked up at Zero.
"Look at Aerith."
She blinked a moment, then nodded when she realized what it was he wanted from her. Focusing, she turned her gaze upon the quiet brunette covered in markings. In seconds the markings seemed to fade…only to be replaced by black lines and dots…in the exact places all the red ones were.
Kairi gasped in horror. Zero held out his left arm, in his hand was a red marker. Kairi saw this and shuddered.
"What? What did he do?"
She quickly leveled a fearsome glare at Leon.
"He just cut her into ribbons."
Aerith's eyes widened in fright, and the others let loose a series of gasps.
"Or he would have, if he wasn't trying to prove a point." Kairi walked over to Aerith, dragging her by the arm to Leon and Cloud.
"All these red lines, all these red dots, are the exact areas where if Zero had been using a blade, Aerith would have been cleanly cut. You two idiots basically caused Aerith to be sliced into hundreds of tiny pieces!"
Stammering Aerith questioned the younger girl. "B-but I'm…"
"You're fine." Everyone turned to Zero, who was leaning against a pillar. "All those marks are from this marker. Like Kairi said, I was proving a point. None of you were able to react when I vanished, let alone when I showed up again. You're all too slow for me…"
He looked at the pillar he was leaning against. He seemed to stare at it for a moment then nodded. He turned around and flickered over to Yuffie, surprising her. He reached behind her and she flushed indignantly as she felt his hand brush against her rear end. She was about to slap him when he pulled a Kunai out of the pocket attached to her belt and flickered away.
He appeared at the pillar again, holding the Kunai in the air so everyone could see it.
"This Kunai is in pretty decent condition. Not the sharpest, but it's got enough of an edge to deal some damage. Now, I'm going to demonstrate."
He turned to the pillar and uncapped the marker. His left hand blurred. The pillar was now covered in red markings.
"Those are exactly like what I did to Aerith. Now, look what happens when I use a Kunai. Now, be certain to note that this is solid stone. This kunai is metal, has no enhancements or spells cast on it whatsoever. And, I'm not even going to place any energy into the kunai to make it sharper or anything. Alicia!"
Knowing what it was he wanted, the girl drew her blade and swung it at him. The two clashed, but barely placed any pressure on one another.
"As you can see, it's strong enough to block a sword, but not able to cut through it." He struck the floor with it. "Cant even cut through this ground see? Now, look what happens when I trace those lines…"
His right arm blurred. He stepped away from the pillar. After the third step, the stone object seemed to shudder…then collapse upon itself, piece by piece. Everyone but Riku, Sora, Kairi, Naminé, Roxas, Alicia and King Mickey was in shock.
"Now…imagine how human flesh would react?"
Aerith paled and fell to her knees. "That…could have been me?"
"Yep. All thanks to Emo-boy and Overcompensating over there."
She turned harshly angered eyes upon Cloud and Leon. The two stammered and stepped backward.
Tifa, ever the calculator, posed a query. "Question!"
"Answer."
"Wouldn't that happen anyway, with the speed you were moving at?"
"Yes, but the cuts wouldn't be as clean and precise. Not to mention I could take a simple butter knife, and use it to cut diamond."
"Prove it."
"Got a diamond?"
"No…but I have an arm band that is made from metal that is supposed to be as hard as diamond."
"That'll do. Got a butter knife?"
A broom burst into the room holding a plate that consisted of a single butter knife.
"Well…shit. Useful little bugger aint ya? Thanks."
The broom seemed to bend itself in a bow, and trotted off.
"Alright, toss it."
Tifa hurled the object into the air. Zero watched it drop, and when it got close enough, his arm blurred again.
Seconds later, pieces of the wristband fell around Zero's feet. As for the butter knife…
"Not a single scratch on it."
Aerith was frozen in fear. That could have been me…I could have been killed just like th- "OW! Hey! What was that for?!"
Zero's right hand was crackling with electricity. "You were going into shock…so I shocked you. You're fine. Stop thinking about it."
"But-
"But nothing. You. Are. Fine."
"Well…what am I going to do about this?" She gestured to the markings.
"It's marker. It comes off with water and a bit of rubbing."
"Ooh! Let me!" Naminé eagerly offered.
雨
A torrent of rain suddenly appeared and drenched the room. Aerith sputtered in confusion.
風
Moments after the rain stopped, a sudden gust of wind blew through the room, drying everyone up. Although the girl's hair were messy now.
"Ahh…oops…"
"Bit sudden for a shower…"
"Ahh…yeah…"
"Alright, here's how it's going down. There's these things called Cellars. They seem to be placed on specific worlds, and are currently spitting out Mindless. Kill enough Mindless, and the Cellar transforms into that world's most powerful being. It gains all their knowledge and powers, but not their minds, meaning it knows what they know, and can do what they do, but it can't think like they can. For example, if it turned into someone with Flame Manipulation as a power, it would summon fireballs, walls of fire, occasional fire darts or whatever, but it wouldn't say…create a wall of fire, then surround the target, then create a pillar of fire beneath the target, causing the target to jump away from the pillar and walls of flame, and into a waiting fireball. No, it would make a wall of fire, then try to collapse it into a pillar of flame, not having the intelligence to do multiple things at once."
Cloud nodded. "So they're powerful, but they can't get creative."
"Exactly. Also, say it had a flame and darkness combination. It would constantly switch between fire attacks and darkness attacks, never merging the two together. Because the Cellar is an artificial life form, it can have the knowledge a living being has, but not the instincts. Therefore, it has a massive glaring flaw that can be exploited. Now, while I was gone, in between Wonderland and when I returned at Valhalla, I took out about three Cellars. So Wonderland, and two other worlds are now safe from Mindless, but they'll still have Heartless popping up every now and then."
Zero turned to Alicia. "By the way, I want to take you to one of those worlds, there's someone there that can help you master Beowulf's powers."
The blonde nodded, and then returned to leaning her head on his shoulder.
"Now, I'm pretty sure your world of Radiant Garden does not have a Cellar. These things are like branding irons in my head, I can sense where they are. However…"
He turned to Kairi. "Your friend Tidus will need you guys' help. Spira has a Cellar, and it's likely to turn into either Seymour Guado or Sin. And if it turns into Sin…well…You're the only one besides myself that would be able to take it out Kairi."
"Because of my…your sight, right?"
"Yes. Our eyes can perceive the Fated Death of things. But in order to do so, we have to understand that it can die. So all you have to do is keep in mind that Tidus and the others blasted Sin to hell once. It's fucking huge though, four times the size of Hollow Bastion Castle to be exact, and it has a City on its back the size of Twilight Town."
"Damn!"
"Exactly. Tidus and the others beat it by going inside it, where there was some form of alternate dimension within it, and then traversing their way to its core. Since it's a Cellar, all you'd have to do is find its Point, and just stab it. It'll rip away the Shell of Sin, and leave the weakened Cellar exposed. All you have to do then is have someone use the Keyblade to "unlock" the Cellar, which will cause it to collapse on itself, and…well, die."
Kairi was nervous, but she nodded.
"Also, Sin can use Gravity. Meaning it can summon orbs of Dark Energy that can literally make your body implode on itself, and it can warp the world around it. When fighting against anything that could possibly pose a threat to it, it can summon a dome of Dark Energy to protect itself, and when it gets irritated, extend that dome into a sort of energy slash attack that can sever nearly anything in its path, but dissipates upon contact with a large enough structure; or a massive wall of Dark Energy that eradicates anything it touches in seconds, for a moderate range ahead."
Kairi and the others paled. "Only downside is that both moves take a bit to prepare, so you can see it coming. I'm not sure what its effects on Magical Barriers are, so Sora's Reflect spell might actually work on blocking it, since I've seen that thing block Mansex's Expanding Spheres. And since it's a copy, and not the real thing, it's going to be considerably weaker than the real thing…so it's likely that it's Gravity Wall would just really, really hurt, rather than turn you to atoms…"
"So…you're not sure."
"Nope. I'm not even sure it will turn into Sin. I'm just letting you know what it can do in case it DOES turn into Sin."
"You're not going with them?"
"I'll go with them as far as Spira so I can pinpoint where the Cellar is most likely to be nesting. But I need to get Alicia to that other world so she can get used to Beowulf. I trust the boy's skills though, and Naminé can use some pretty nifty tricks now, and if all else fails Kairi can just cut the fucker's head in two and call it a day."
Kairi smiled slightly at that.
"So when do we go?"
"Whenever you want, the sooner the better. We don't know if Tidus and the others are fighting any Mindless yet, and if they are, that means they're closer to forcing the Cellar out of hiding than we'd like."
Riku suggested they leave immediately.
"Fine by me. We'll meet you at the ship." Alicia and Zero stood, Alicia wrapping her arms around Zero's waist, and the two vanished in a dark corridor.
"That's cute…" Aerith spoke.
"What is?"
"She loves him. You can see it in the way she looks at him…and he loves her back. It's cute."
Sora's group looked at one another. "When did that happen?!"
Kairi and Naminé shrugged. The girls looked at each other. "Girl's night?" Kairi nodded. "Girl's night."
They strolled off. Sora, Riku and Roxas looked at each other. "What was that all about?" They asked at the same time.
Short, not much happening, but hey, it's something. Next chapter: My perception of a gossip session, Spira, and…Dante?!
Just Fly A Kite: I'm going to stick with just Kite from now on, until someone else pops up with that name. I'm glad you liked the chapter.
D&S Master: Yeah, the idea came from CoM and KHII's opening. You see Naminé drawing things, and then shit happens. So I figured "well crap. She'd be perfect for the Celestial Brush."
RCRS: Yes, and you'll soon find that his Game Nerd side has a very important role in this story…
And yes, Naruto's English voice is crap. I've only seen a couple episodes of Death Note though. Another good series is Tsukihime, the anime I heard sucks, but the Manga for that and Melty Blood are freakin awesome.