Author's Note: No, Balder is NOT related to Kain from FF4. I heard from a reliable source that Kain is Latin or something for Spear.
Chapter Four: The Monkey in the Gate
Kaigoumon wasn't far, distance wise, but the trip was made long and tiring due to large hills, some hundreds of feet high. The flora consisted of a few bushes and shrubs, though they were few and far between, leaving expansive areas of light brown dirt and hard rock. Scaling the cliff walls was considerably easier with Balder around, who could usually reach the top in a single leap, and let down a rope for his escorts to climb up.
The sun was hot, and the humidity scalding, leaving the trio dripping with sweat and fuming mirages. They went through their water supply halfway through the trip, and that was when their conversations dried up as well. The rest of the trip was left in utter silence, save for the occasional fight with monsters. Balder proved to be capable enough with monsters that Sigurd and Hilda usually left him alone, and in turn he was independent enough to use his own potions rather than ask Sigurd or Hilda to heal him whenever he got injured, though he offered their female companion some of the recovery liquid at times. His offers were usually met with hard glares and muttered 'chauvinist'.
Unfortunately, Kaigoumon was situated at the top of the tallest hill, atop a mesa flush against edge of a mile high cliff. The last leg of the journey was tiring, but the higher up they went, the drier it became; an event the trio was grateful for. When they reached the mesa, they saw obsidian walls surround a city that spanned nearly the entire five miles of the plateau. The Stellar Jay Road came in from the east, while the Junko Road came down from the north, along the edge of the cliff to the west.
As the trio walked up the stairway leading to the elevated Road to get to the gate entrance, Sigurd saw a river coming out of the northeastern corner of the city, cutting a slice in the mesa before it became a small waterfall leading to the north. "Where did that come from?" He asked.
"That's the Gates River." Balder explained. "It was said that the water god, Famfrit, blessed Kaigoumon after the Necromancer Crusade a thousand years ago with a spring that never dries up."
A few minutes later, the trio went through the gates into the city. The humidity rose up sharply, but the temperature took a nosedive, creating the feel of walking through a chilled mist. Sigurd had to stop himself from sighing in contentment, lest he make himself look stupid in front of his companions.
The buildings themselves were mostly ceramic with brick, with tiled rooftops and were rarely above three stories high. There were balconies and walkways above the streets on nearly every building, with fountains everywhere and miniature aqueducts carrying water to every ledge, acting as both water distribution and hand railing. Those buildings that were taller than three floors were towers and giant airship hangers with multi-tiered spires above them that were used as smaller docks. Sigurd noticed that many of the towers had airships that looked heavily armed and carried crests and insignias he didn't recognize, though he guessed them to be military. He even saw several soldiers walking the streets ahead of them.
"Strong military presence." Sigurd commented.
"There has to be." Balder replied. "Kaigoumon is an important trade town, as it's the only city in the northern Verniccio Providence with Roads connected to it. This is also a border town, right on the line between Verniccio, Moscroix, and Beluosus. The governments of all three providences send their soldiers here to even out the balance of power over this place, and share joint ownership, as any side that controls this trading hotspot with Roads going through it will gain a considerable advantage over the other two. So far, the only thing keeping any of the provinces from trying to take over is a tumultuous peace between the three kingdoms, and the agreement of even distribution of taxes from Kaigoumon. Things weren't always bad between them, not until the coup d'etat of Beluosus. All nations are on edge due to that."
Sigurd remembered hearing something about the coup on Beluosus. Being founded by the eighth Saint, Beluoso, the Kingdom was the oldest country in all of Terra, with some scholars believing it predated the Roads themselves. When the King was killed in the takeover, it was the first time Beluosus wasn't ruled by a member of the royal family in three thousand years.
After walking a few blocks, Baldur stopped, and faced his escorts. "I thank you for taking me this far, this is where we part ways." He nodded his dragon-motif head toward a food stand. "I'll meet you both here again in two hours with your payment. In the meantime, I suggest you find an airport and choose your flight. I don't wish to pay you off an estimate." With that he turned and walked down the street."
"Not one for long goodbyes." Sigurd mentioned.
"Good riddance." Hilda stated. "I still don't trust him."
Sigurd sighed. "That paranoia of yours won't earn you many friends."
"It keeps me alive." She shot back.
"It'll get you killed someday, I think." He countered. He then looked around the area, rubbed his sun baked face and neck. "I think that Inn should be good." He pointed to one with a big garish sign of yellow and purple that read: The Cold Spot. "Sounds like a nice place right about now."
Hilda guffawed. "Rhine, that's just advertising. Only the stupid and naïve would fall for such a gimmick."
Regardless, Sigurd marched toward it. "It's illegal to make false advertisements, right?"
Hilda pressed her palm to her face, wishing this wouldn't lead to a stress headache. Couldn't he tell how happy she was during the silent half of their trek? Didn't the infrequent scowls give it away?
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Baldur walked into the hostel, feeling somewhat sorry for deceiving his companions. He didn't need to visit a bank or cache, he had more than enough money on him, but he didn't want them to know. Too much money at one time drew questions, and neither he, nor Tempest, could afford unnecessary attention.
Part of him hoped they found an early flight to leave, knowing things in Kaigoumon were likely going to get crazy soon.
He gained the attention of an attendant, who asked him if he wanted anything. "Yes, I was supposed to meet someone, but I couldn't remember the name of the hostel he was staying at. I was wondering if you could check and see if he was here. His name is Sarutobi Sasuke."
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The lieutenant rushed through the halls with the missive in hand. Though he was officially a soldier of Moscroix, he had to deliver the message to him. No one knew his name, but everyone knew of him and his partners. The Horsemen of Beluosus, the whispers called them. As often as not, at least one of them were stationed in Kaigoumon.
He wasn't as politically minded as some, but he could tell their presence in Kaigoumon was meant to remind Verniccio and Moscroix of what those few individuals were capable of. What Beluosus was capable of. He knew the oldest country on Terra became a booming economic powerhouse after the coup d'etat, the standard of living was up, the homeless and unemployed were almost non-existent now, and it seemed like the people were happy.
With as little as he knew, he could tell other countries weren't happy with them. He hadn't heard any specifics, but he heard, in various ways, that the new ruling government had become something of a bully, using underhanded tactics and veiled threats to get their way. That big brute he had to deliver the missive to was certainly a threat that was veiled thinly.
He reached the arboretum of the Governmental Palace, the last known location of the man in question, and as soon as he opened the door, he recoiled in shock. The putrid stench was so bad, his eyes watered and he nearly lost balance from light headedness. The artificial sunlight lamps were turned off, leaving him wondering what was going on in there that could cause such a repugnant odor.
"What is it?" A voice that sounded vaguely like the Beluosus henchman, but much more craggy and raspy, demanded.
Denying the urge to lift his officer's uniform to cover his nose and mouth, he forced his back straight and said, "Sir, I bring a missive from Beluosus." He held the rolled up paper up with both hands, and presented it forward.
He nearly fainted when he saw the massive hand, literally nothing but bones and tendons dotted with rotted pieces of flesh, reach out from the shadows to take the scroll out of his hands. "Go." He said, simply.
The young lieutenant didn't need anymore encouragement than that to dismiss himself. Hours later, he would return to the Arboretum to see if the stench was still there, and he would never forget the image of every plant and tree dead, half decayed into compost.
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He didn't much care that he likely scared the officer enough to have nightmares well into old age, his power was a burden he had long ago come to accept. He broke the wax seal on the missive and unrolled it.
My friend,
The one we have sought, the prodigal son in is Kaigoumon. He seeks Sasuke the Saboteur. You are to use yourself as bait to draw him out. Find a spot of neutral ground, a place where he can seek you out without fear of drawing attention to himself, and without fear of you drawing the ire of the other two holders of the city.
Though I would never question your ability, make the appropriate preparations for in the event that either Kain, or mister Sasuke, should escape your trap, the city would immediately go into lockdown. This is a matter of utmost importance, do not let either of them escape alive. The Saboteur may seem inconsequential, but Tempest is a Hydra, more heads will crop up if a leader is cut off, but Sarutobi Sasuke is as irreplaceable, and potentially as dangerous, as Balder Kain.
Chancellor Vadere.
He huffed a breath from his massive chest, and siphoning power into his hand, the paper crumbled into black leaflets.
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Balder knocked on the door three times and called, "Excuse me sir, can I come in?" After a few moments without a response, he checked the door knob, and found the door opened easily. "Mister Sasuke?" He called out.
He walked into the Spartan hostel room, noting the cot, the unpolished, uneven wooden floor, a table with two chairs and a window pane. He looked from side to side, finding nothing, and when he was about to turn around to leave, he felt two cold steel blades against the sides of his neck.
"What do you want?" A voice asked.
"My organization and I wish to hire your services, Sasuke the Saboteur." Balder replied, not moving a muscle more than necessary.
He felt one blade pull back, then heard the high frequency sound of metal vibrating as it was thrown tip down into the floor. Almost at the same instance, a hand reached around his neck and latched onto his throat, squeezing just enough to let him breath but show he could collapse his windpipe if necessary.
After a few seconds, the hand pulled back, and the voice behind him said, in an amused voice, "Well, your heart rate didn't speed up in the least. You're not a man easily thrown off, are you Balder Kain?"
Balder spun around in surprise. The man he found was hanging by his legs from the rafters of the ceiling. He wore a thick, quilted grey gi with a fishnet shirt showing between the folds at his chest and at the ends of his sleeves. Bending himself forward quickly, he showed some acrobatic flair as he flipped to his feet on floor, pulled his sword out of the floorboard, and sheathed both kodachi across the small of his back.
"How did you know who I was?" Balder demanded.
Sarutobi gave him a smirk, or at least he thought it was a smirk. It was hard to tell with his severe underbite, giving him a strong pout-like look, his tanned flat face, pocked by ridges as if he had pox as a child, and a huge, crooked nose. His wiry black hair was swept back across his scalp, and he had thick, wild sideburns. He was ugly. "I have ways of having my presence known to prospective clients."
Balder had to stop himself from furrowing his brow. He had to appear stoic. "You wanted us to hire you?"
He not only knows of us, he managed to track my movements, find my informants, and find ways to innocuously pass the right information to them. Balder thought. This guy is everything the stories say of him.
Sarutobi walked over to the cot, his client noticing he had a heavy slump to his back, and sat down. "So, shall we get down to business?" He asked, leaning back against the wall with his legs crossed. He looked over, and saw a large spider on the bed frame. He reached over, picked it up, and then popped it in his mouth.
Balder fought hard not to shudder at the sight. He suspected he was going to have less fun here than Sigurd and Hilda were having; though at a second thought, he didn't want to know what they were doing.
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Hilda hit Sigurd atop his silver pony tailed head. "Ow! What was that for?" He demanded. He purposefully didn't look at her in order to avoid her terrifying glare.
"'Looks like we'll spend one last night together'? If you say anything like that again, I'll pistol whip you!" She said, angrily. She wouldn't have been able to reach the top of his head like that had he not been sitting on his bed of their Inn room. They found out at the airport that they missed the daily flight to the Wind Shrine, and that they would have to wait until tomorrow. They got their prices, met up with Balder, and got their payment. Hilda had tried to swindle him out of a few hundred gil more than necessary, but Sigurd told him the honest price of the tickets before she could.
"Geez, I wasn't trying to get you into my bed." He insisted. "I was just making a statement." He opened his mouth to continue, but wisely stopped himself. He was going to say, 'I was going to say I enjoyed this little adventure, and I just wanted to thank you'. He was pretty sure she wouldn't appreciate it.
Hilda harrumphed and went over to her bed. She knew he wasn't trying that, and that was part of what angered her. She didn't want to hear things that even unwittingly implied they were an item. There were few things that annoyed her more than country bumpkins, and one of them were honest bumpkins.
"Still, our adventure wasn't that bad." He insisted.
Some small part of her was forced to admit it wasn't. An even smaller part of her admitted, much to the disgust of the rest of her, that she considered him to be something akin to a friend. Not an actual friend, just something akin to it! She insisted.
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The following mourning, Balder wiped the morning dew off his forehead, looking out from the alleyway toward the distant towers. He heard some whisperings within Tempest, echoes saying he was impatient. Everyone was impatient, he just expected others to operate in a concise manner.
He wondered, for the hundredth time, what was taking Sasuke so long. They had made the plans the night before.
Thirty minutes after the initial greetings, Balder and Sarutobi came to an accord on the payment, though it was substantially higher than the dragoon had hoped for. "Okay, your turn. What do you know about the siege of Beluosus?"
He shrugged. "I don't know anything about any siege." After a moment, seeing the anger flair in Balder's face, he elaborated. "If you're talking about the takeover of Castle Beluo, I wouldn't call that a siege. A siege is done with an army. The takeover of the Castle was accomplished with only four people, orchestrated by the then Duke Vadere."
"What?" Balder stood up fast enough to where he knocked over the chair he was sitting in. "Castle Beluo fell to only four people?"
"Well, the guard was significantly reduced after the war with Latros ended. The country was nearly bankrupt, and over half of the guard and military were volunteers. King Gungnir must have been retarded to think starting a war would help the economy." He laughed at that.
Balder had to stop himself from strangling the ugly Saboteur-For-Hire for that last comment. The kingdom was a country of poor soil and heavy monster populations. Farms were rare, so the country was heavily dependant on trade for food. Thirty years earlier, the kingdom was facing a crisis from bandits attacking caravans in the days before widespread use of commercial airships. Most of the bandits came from Latros, and when the country's king refused to do anything about them, King Gungnir declared war against them. The eight year, unsuccessful war devastated the economy, trade nearly stopped, and thousands went hungry.
Then the Coup took place, Vadere appointed himself Chancellor, and inexplicably, wealth returned to the country. "So Vadere and these four people took down Castle Beluo, who are they?"
Sarutobi shrugged his shoulders. "No one knows, and that's a subject not easily studied. Learning their well kept secrets is a risk I don't wanna take unless I'm paid well. All I've been able to find out is they're called the Four Horsemen by the Beluosus military. Apparently not even the higher military powers know who they are." He shrugged. "There's usually one stationed in Kaigoumon. That's why I decided to lure you here. I figured you'd want to find out about them quickly."
"You didn't lure me here!" Balder insisted.
"What would you call it?" Sarutobi asked, furrowing his bushy brows. "Just because you're a little club with a grudge who sometimes plays 'intrigue' doesn't mean you're anything special. You guys were hella easy, just admit it." He said it as if it were a fact, and not supposed to be insulting.
Balder grit his teeth as the two of them started discussing plans for finding out more about the Four Horsemen.
It was nearly two hours after their scheduled rendezvous. He was asked to stay behind near the escape point: a rafting service on the Gates River. Buying the simple raft, and signing the waiver preventing lawsuits on the small company for letting them go without proper instruction or guidance, had come out of the expenses account, and he prayed it was worth it. If all went well, though, then the Horsemen of Beluosus would be down to three by the end of the day.
He heard the scratching of feet running across the cobblestone floors, and looked out of the alleyway to see Sarutobi running up to him. He looked like he was in a hurry. A very bad sign.
"Saru, what happened?" He asked hastily.
The slumped over man ran right past him, got behind a few sacks of garbage, started undoing his pants, and in record time was urinating against the wall.
Balder groaned. "Hey, Sasuke, we're in public!"
"Whatever, you weren't in a suit of armor in the governor's office for six hours, waiting to for him to leave so you could scour his office." Sarutobi defended himself.
"Why didn't you scour his office before the governor showed up?" Balder demanded, patience wearing thin.
"It took longer than expected to get there; I only had, like, ten seconds to hide myself!" He sighed as he finished up.
Balder leaned his armored back against the ceramic wall, muttering, "Ten seconds, yeah right."
"I'm serious!" Sarutobi insisted. "I caught sight of the governor rounding the corner toward the office right before I closed the door!"
Balder turned his head in surprise at the bent-backed professional saboteur. He managed to slip into a suit of armor in only ten seconds? Could his back even straighten enough to allow that? "Whatever. Did you find out anything?"
"As a matter of fact," he pulled his pants up and retied his belt, "I did. The Horseman currently stationed here gave a missive to the governor, and apparently other officials in Kaigoumon, saying that he will go pray in the chapel from one until two in the afternoon each day. He made the announcement official so he could let them know not to disturb him with news or guards during that time."
Balder thought about this development for a minute. "That's…very good news, Saru. You wait here, if I'm not back by two-thirty, take the raft and get out of Kaigoumon." He started walking out of the alleyway.
"Hold on a second, we need a plan!" Sarutobi yelled after him.
"You stay there, that's an order from your client!" Balder yelled back, not breaking stride, before disappearing into the noon masses.
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Despite having ordered no escort, Balder still found two Kaigoumon sentries at the doors to the chapel, which was of the most common form of temples. The massive structure was constructed of black marble, set right at the edge of the cliff on the west edge of the city, the bottom half tapered as it neared the ground, while the top half consisted of gradually tapering floors, all supported by pillars in the shape of four crescent moons put back-to-back. Each floor above the halfway point was dedicated to worship of the thirteen gods, with the top three floors having no rooftops and no floors in the center so all three of them could see the sky; the lowest of those three being to Famfrit, where the water from the top two floors would drain to during the rains, the second being to Ultima, goddess of the sun, and the top being dedicated to Zeromus, god of the moon.
The bottom half was one large room, split into two floors by a series of catwalks suspended by massive pillars. This room symbolized the dual cosmic entities, the Great Dragon and the Golden Tiger. As he pushed open the double doors leading the central aisle, he saw someone kneeling in front of the alter at the far end of the room.
"In the primordial cosmos, before the ethereal and mortal realms existed, among the many specters there existed the Great Dragon and the Golden Tiger, before they chose their forms to appear before man." The man spoke, reading from the scripture. Balder thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, until he realized the man had to have been eight feet tall, but proportionately he was the same as anyone else. He could see little else of the man besides his very high collared cape, black as midnight, with Kanji symbols reading 'shikichi' or 'dead earth' on his back.
"The Golden Tiger, the celestial incarnation of chaos and change, became drawn to the Great Dragon, the celestial incarnation of stasis and creation. Upon the collision of the two, an unstoppable force colliding with an immovable object, the resulting force created the Heavens, the Earthly Plains, and the Outer Realms. The Great Dragon adopted the heavens as his domain, and declared himself the Heavenly Guardian. The Golden Tiger adopting the fledgling mortal realm as his turf, declaring himself the Terrestrial Guardian. Together, they evolved the specters into the Thirteen Gods, leaving all others to be spirits in their service, giving unto them the Outer Realms." He then turned around and faced Balder, both men at either end of the massive room.
The tan, almost olive skinned man, with nothing adorning his head except two rows of three burn dots, looked handsome, almost regal. He wore no shirt under his cape, showing off a muscular physique, and dark violet pants. "Are you planning on reciting how the Twelve Saints ended the Dark Epoch?" Balder asked.
"Have you ever wondered how the Great Dragon would appear, ever imagined his majesty?" The tall man replied.
"If he appeared before me, I would make my peace with whatever psychopomp I believed in at the time." Balder answered tersely.
"He was beautiful." The man turned and looked at the stained glass mural stretching the entire height of the room, depicting the two celestial guardians.
"So you think you've met him?" Balder humored, hefting his spear a few times while walking toward the man.
"Yes, at Lunaqua." He lifted his arms into the air in awe, showing his hands for the first time, which were several times larger than they should have been, even for his size. "He appeared before us all, revealing his beauty and brilliance." He then lowered his arms, and his voice took on a tone of anger, "And he took away the victory that should have been ours."
A part of Balder was intrigued by the man's words, there were very few theories of what actually happened that destroyed Lunaqua, but his anger pushed these curiosities aside. "I am Balder Kain, son of Gungnir Kain, the ninety-ninth king of Beluosus. You took away my family and my throne." He swung his spear into a ready position. "I'm here to reclaim them through your life!"
The Horseman huffed. "So you came after the weakest of us first. You should have brought an army."
"So you don't deny it." Balder stated, the thrill of his vengeance coursing through his veins. "Give me your name. Let me know the names of the Four Horsemen who took away what is mine by right!"
The enormous man turned sideways into a ready stance, and answered calmly. "Kill me and I'll tell you."
With a battle cry, Balder lunged forward, staying low to the ground using his powerful legs to propel him faster and faster forward, his footsteps breaking the stone tiled floor. At twenty feet away from the Horseman, he leapt with his spear forward to skewer the man. Five feet short of his target, a wall of rock blasted out of the ground, showering the area in dirt and gravel.
Unable to stop, Balder slammed into the wall, his spear sticking the entire length of its blade into the rock. Keeping his grip on the spear, he hung on the wall for a brief moment before using the leverage of his weapon to quickly prop his feet against the wall to pull it out, knowing his opponent could strike at any moment.
Right as he pulled his spear out, spikes shot out of the wall. He jumped back, but too slow as one of the spikes stabbed him in the side of the stomach, penetrating two inches before reaching its limit. After jumping back a few more feet, two more walls of solid rock shot out of the ground, ten feet to his left and right, and acting before anything could happen, he jumped into the air. Half a moment after he went airborne, the two walls smashed into each other, crushing the floor between them and creating a large plum of dust.
As he reached the zenith of his ascent, just past the midpoint of the room, he saw, fifty feet below him, the wall in front of the Horseman retreated into the floor, and the man stepped forward. As he started to fall, Balder angled himself so both his body and the numerous small fins and wings adorning his armor would direct his fall so he would fall on top of the man.
A moment before it was too late, the Horseman jumped back as Balder landed, and before the dragoon could retaliate, he punched the smaller man in the chest with his watermelon sized fist. The force of the strike threw the young prince into the nearest pew, shattering it to splinters, and every pew behind it until he hit the far wall, with still enough momentum to leave cracks in the wall.
His vision swimming and full of stars from the pain, Balder almost subconsciously reached for the straps to release his dented cuirass. As the armor fell off, releasing the pressure the bent metal pressed against his chest, Balder pulled a rope-wrapped bottle of blue liquid off his belt. Right then, through the line of destroyed pews, he saw the Horseman pull a large boulder out of the ground with the palm of his hand on top of it, as if it were glued to the rock, and reached back to throw it.
Foregoing downing the potion, Balder pushed himself onto his feet as best he quickly could with his broken ribs, and leapt to the side a moment before the boulder destroyed the wall he was thrown into. Spinning in midair, he twisted off the top, and as he landed and slid across the floor on his back, he drank the entire bottle in three painfully large gulps. As his ribs and puncture wound healed, he got back on his feet and leapt up to the second level catwalks, avoiding another boulder in the process.
Before he could come up with another strategy, two more boulders flew through the air, taking out the catwalk in front of and behind Balder. Unable to support his weight, the cables holding the walkway snapped, and he found himself falling to the floor under him. Landing in a crouch, he was about to jump away when the ground under him gave out like quicksand, and without any balance his back hit a wall of rock that wasn't there a moment ago. As soon as his back touched it, spikes shot out of the sides and curved around him, binding him in place.
The Horseman walked up to him at a leisurely pace, having not moved more than ten feet from where he was when the fight began. When they were face to face, he pulled back his fist, ready to crush Balder's head, but hesitated. After a few moments, he said, "Cut the head off this snake, and the body might not completely die. Tell us everything about your allies, and we might let you live, if we could find a way to use you."
"Are you really the weakest of the Four Horsemen?" Balder asked, defiantly.
"Yes. The others would have likely killed you too fast." The giant replied.
"Then I'll be sure to bring allies when I face them. Besides, you haven't told me your name yet."
"You haven't killed me yet."
"The operative word being 'yet'." Suddenly, a Dragon Crest formed around the Horseman, and the ethereal dragon head jumped up and closed its huge maw around him. In the nick of time, he raised his arms, and with the teeth stabbing him through the hands, he held the jaw open.
A moment later, the same crest formed on Balder's wall, and the dragon head came forward, pushing its summoner forward until the rock binds broke it disappeared. With the Horseman's arms occupied, Balder lifted his spear, and with a war cry, stabbed it through the man's heart.
As blood started to roll down the shaft, the dragon holding the man in place disappeared, and the Horseman's head rolled forward. "…ich." He muttered.
"What was that?" Balder mocked, anger in his voice as he pushed the spear another inch into the man's chest.
"My name is Lich. We're not the Four Horsemen; we're the Four Elemental Fiends." He lifted his head to look Balder in the eye, showing no signs of fear or pain, only an excited smirk. "And it's been a long time since anyone's killed me." As the words rolled off his tongue, his face and body shrunk into itself to the point of extreme emaciation, his eyes shriveled up and receded into his head. Balder, in shock, tried to pull his spear out as Lich's skin started to peel.
Suddenly his nose was assaulted by the most awful stench he had ever encountered. He then managed to get his spear out, and from the wound came a black miasma that magnified the smell. Balder was quick to make some distance between them, but the monster jumped after him, its fist pulled back to strike. Out of options, Balder let out a power gust of wind from his mouth, simultaneously pushing Lich away from him and forcing himself to move through the air faster due to propulsion, the Elemental Fiend never got the chance to strike.
Lich's face shifted into an expression whose meaning was lost to Balder from the lack of flesh on it. "Was there poison laced with that attack?" It asked, its voice now high and squeaky like grinding metal.
As soon as his feet touched the ground again, Balder made a random series of jumps to keep the Lich from guessing his next course of action. He tried to think, but the shock of what he had seen wouldn't let go of him. He killed the man, but he was able to turn himself undead! Now with no life in him, there were very few ways he could actually 'kill' the man, as any kind of normally fatal wound would only hinder him. He was powerful enough when he was mortal, and Balder didn't have any chest armor anymore.
As soon as he landed from the fourth jump, every inch of the room's floor cracked and jutted up against his feet so violently he lost his balance, falling onto the floor after it fell back down to it's normal resting place. The moment his back was on the floor, the ground shot up, creating a column firing upward toward an identical pillar coming from the ceiling, threatening to crush Balder.
As soon as he realized this, he rolled to the side and off the column, falling gracelessly onto the floor. Suddenly, spikes jutted out from the column, which broke near the base, and the thing toppled over in Balder's direction.
When he barely managed to roll out of the way, he knew he couldn't keep this up, and decided offense was his best option. He charged toward the monster, forcing every bit of power out of his legs that he could with each step, clearing the fifteen yards between them in only a couple seconds, before Lich could put up a defense, and rammed his spear, powered by his momentum, right into the monster's skull.
The Elemental Fiend took a step back, but its eyeless face quickly fixed its gaze on its opponent.
"Aw shit." He cursed, an instant before Lich punched him in the stomach, sending him to the other side of the room. He had hoped that, like some zombies, destroying the brain would finish him. As he slid to a halt, he was grateful the punch wasn't as powerful as the last one, and that it hit him in the stomach rather than the ribs, but it still took all his willpower to fight the pain enough to get back onto his feet.
He saw the monster pull the spear out of its skull and bend the metal shaft in its grip with just its thumb. Now he lost his most important armor and his weapon. This wasn't about revenge anymore, this was about survival! Now the only options for killing him were immolation and complete destruction. Right then, he looked past Lich, and an idea came to him from what he saw. Again, offense was his best option, but if he failed, he likely wouldn't walk away as well off as he did previously, if he even survived.
Turning, he ran at the wall, jumped, and ran up the side of it as best he could. When his momentum and friction wore out, he stabbed the toe of his boot into the wall, creating an artificial foothold to propel himself more so toward the ceiling. There he jumped from rafter to rafter, while concentrating on a certain dragoon spell. When it was ready and already starting, he jumped to the rafter right above Lich, and planting his feet against the ceiling, he rocketed downward toward his foe. As he had thought might happen, it was as soon as the Dragon Crest was finished forming that Lich noticed the spell was right under him.
With that moment of distraction, Balder formed a Dragon Grasp spell in his hand, and a serpentine head shot out and grabbed the floor twenty feet away from his opponent, pulling him off the collision course. While Lich jumped above the short range of the forming dragon head, Balder landed with enough force to blast fragments of broken floor tile up, and then jumped at his now airborne opponent.
Forming a Dragon Grasp spell in each hand, the dragon heads shot out, past Lich and grabbed onto the alter behind him. Using that leverage and the Grasp spells to pull himself toward Lich even faster, he slammed both feet into the monster. The resulting impact sent the Elemental Fiend flying backward, through the stained glass window, and out away from the cliff bordering Kaigoumon, leading to a half mile drop straight down.
Balder managed to correct his flight enough to where he wouldn't hurt himself slamming into the alter, but took a moment to catch his breath, and peer over the edge through the broken glass. He saw Lich still falling. Even if he could somehow run straight up the cliff wall, it would take at least take several minutes, time enough for him to escape the city.
As he tiredly jogged, too tired to run, out of the chapel, he found himself suddenly the object of attention from two squadrons of military personnel.
"You there!" One of them demanded, his insignia showing him to be of high rank. "Stop right there! You are under arrest to be questioned in relation to the disturbances reported here."
Oh this isn't happening. With a moan, Balder jumped toward the nearest building, jumped onto its roof, and hoped the quickly ensuing bullets wouldn't hit him anywhere important.
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Near the eastern edge of the city, Sigurd walked out of a small building, Hilda following shortly after, looking thoroughly annoyed. "That's the fifth souvenir shop we've been to. What are you looking for?"
"Snow globes." Sigurd answered, turning his head to look both ways down the cobblestone street, looking for another promising shop.
"Snow globes?" Hilda repeated, slightly dumbfounded. "They had snow globes. I don't think I've ever seen a gift shop that didn't."
Seeing something to the east, Sigurd started walking that direction while talking, "None of them were what I was looking for. I'm hoping to find one with a miniature model of Kaigoumon in it. Old Lady Bachan is nuts about snow globes, and always buys them whenever the peddlers come by."
Hilda groaned in frustration. "I swear, Sigurd Rhine, if this side trip of yours ends in trouble, or us missing our flight, I will strangle you until you die. It seems like everything you do on a whim ends in trouble."
"There's that paranoia again." Sigurd muttered.
When he reached the shop he was eyeing, he saw it was a fabric store. He couldn't tell what it was at a distance due to the small writing and colored windows. Shaking his head, he turned, and saw Balder jumping down from the rooftops, no longer with his spear or his cuirass, revealing his regal blue shirt underneath. "Hey." He called out to him, but was somewhat confused when the dragoon flashed right past him, not even looking at him. "Hey!" He called again, then started running after him.
As soon as he did, he could feel a dark terror creep up on him, as if the Grim Reaper was cuddling against his back. Hilda must have been glaring at him again. Without thinking, he turned his head to see, and instantly regretted it as the feeling magnified when he saw Hilda indeed glaring at him while chasing him. Then his eyes widened when he saw that they, in turn, where being chased.
Hilda turned her head to follow the country bumpkin's gaze, and swore. "Sigurd, just run!"
Deciding to take her seriously, he did, and followed Balder through a few alleyways, and through what looked like a stable, but was actually a docking service for the river that ran under the streets from the spring in the middle of the city. There, Balder made a leap from the upper planks to the simple raft on the water, where a very ugly man with the worst posture Sigurd had ever seen was waiting. He was already untying the moorings before Balder had even leapt onto the boat.
As soon as he saw the water, he came to an immediate halt. He wasn't getting on that! A second later, Hilda came skidding to a stop next to him and said hurriedly, "Come on, they'll catch us!"
"No way, I'm not getting on that!" He stated.
Groaning again in frustration, and cursing every country bumpkin on Terra for banding together and engaging in eugenics in order to create the ultimate bumpkin right in front of her, she grabbed his armor, and using what strength she could from her small frame, hefted him off his feet, and jumped as hard as she could, barely clearing the distance to the raft.
"What the?" The monkey-like man in the boat said.
"Never mind them, just get us out of here!" Balder ordered. The man quickly complied, and used his legs to kick the raft away from the docks, giving them a small boost in speed. As soon as they were past the last mooring, Hilda slapped her palms together, and a whirlpool formed which created a small water tornado that took out the docks and any rafts that could be used to pursue them.
Within seconds, their raft passed under the outer wall, and they were free of Kaigoumon. Balder was quick to crash on his backside, glad that the troubles of the day were finally over with. However, a part of him acknowledged that the battle was a draw, and that if it hadn't ended the way it had, he would be dead.
"Who're they?" Sarutobi asked.
"They're friends, or close enough." Balder answered, staring straight up.
"Sig," Hilda said, after a moment of silence, 'do you remember what we were talking about, not even a minute ago?"
It took a moment for Sigurd to answer. He was trying to stay, as best he could, in the middle of the raft, and had an extremely nervous look on his face as he looked at the river surrounding them on all sides. "Uh…snow globes?"
With a yell, Hilda tackled him, and started strangling him. As Sarutobi started laughing at the scene, Balder came over and tried to break them up.
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Thousands of feet below Kaigoumon, at the base of the cliff bordering its western side, Lich laid there, staring straight up. He supposed it had been a couple hours since the wayward prince had 'defeated' him. Like the eternal earth, he was a patient man, and preferred to take things slow.
Though he was the slowest of the Elemental Fiends, and had the weakest magic, he liked to think he made up for it with his strength, the greatest of the Four, his power of Undeath, and how he was usually the hardest of them to be surprised. It was due to this last point that he made no visible reaction to a redhead suddenly appearing right above his face, when she made absolutely no sound sneaking up on him.
"By the Gods, can you suck anymore?" The woman, with vibrant red-gold hair and a beautiful, lightly tanned complexion complained.
If it weren't for the fact that all his limbs were broken off from the fall, he would've taken the opportunity to punch her. "Shut it, Maralith."
The short, lithe beauty stopped bending over his face and started walking around him. He could see she was wearing her usual red hakama and haori with golden dragon designs, with the long handles of her buster swords peeking over her shoulders. "Great behemoth shit, Lich, the prince had better have been worth you turning undead, because I can't fucking stand this stench!"
"The faster you put me back together, the faster I can revert back. You may only have to deal with me for a couple hours, but I have to deal with the smell for the better part of a day after I turn back." Lich answered calmly. "And since you know about Kain, I suppose he sent you to be my backup?"
"Yes." Another voice, one belonging to a man, answered. Lich turned his head and saw the tall, extremely wide framed man with bluish green skin and thick, perforated gauntlets. "We were worried Tempest may have had an army nearby, knowing how protective they could be of the heir. But apparently we overestimated them, it seems most of them don't know who Balder really is. I suppose some of them might lose faith if they knew this was merely about revenge."
"So you're here as well, Krakken. The last one too?" Lich asked.
"No, it was decided to keep Tiamat near Duke Vadere. As unlikely as it is, this could have been a ploy to get us out of Castle Beluo." Krakken answered.
Maralith guffawed. "I guess our illustrious leader still has some use for that little shit of a pawn." She snickered a little after that before continuing. "Oh well, now that they have Sasuke the Saboteur, and they know we know they exist, they should finally strike soon. I'm tired of all this espionage choco-shit."
"Will we participate?" Lich asked. "We haven't had such a good fight since we took Castle Beluo, and Lunaqua was disappointing."
"Disappointing?" Krakken asked, then huffed, crossing his arms. "I suppose that's one why of putting it. We were lucky to have even survived that nightmare." He then turned his aquamarine eyes to Maralith. "But he does raise a good question: are we to participate when they attempt to retake it? And do try to watch your language, if you would."
Turning her gaze to Lich while flipping the bird to Krakken, she said, "It depends on whether or not the Enterprise is finished by then or not. If it's not, then we won't have anything better to do, so I guess we will."
With what little flesh was still under his peeled skin, Lich smiled, hoping those engineers would take their sweet time.
End of Chapter Four
Author's Notes: Like I said earlier, I needed to flesh out the plot a little bit. Not necessarily what happens, just when and how it happens. Oh, and I'll be moving this to the FFVII section. I'm sorry, Final Fantasy Crossovers section, but I'm like a dog: if I don't get loved, I run away.
So, a couple of notes before I move onto the new moves, which is really short this time, Kaigoumon roughly translates as Rendezvous Gate, Sarutobi translates as Flying Monkey, with Saru, his nickname, meaning Monkey. That's why I named the chapter such. Also, yes, I've tried to model Sarutobi after a monkey in many ways, and yes, he's named after the legendary fictional ninja, except it is westernized, so Sarutobi's his given name while Sasuke's his surname.
Dragon Breath: A dragoon skill. Balder can unleash a powerful wind torrent from his mouth, blowing back smaller enemies and slowing down some heavier advancing enemies. He can also inject a mild poison into the winds. If his feet aren't firmly planted, he can end up pushing himself back.
Quake: This was the spell Lich used to lift the floor of the entire room, similar in appearance to the Quake spell appearing in FFVIII, but instead of a twenty-by-twenty-foot area the spell normally affects, Lich is able to extend the spell to a much greater range.