Final Fantasy: Rise of Despair
When we last left off, Cole's and Co. were traveling through the Deila Dunes towards the Materia woods. Unfortunately, Syack discovered Toxin's secret and ran away in fear. As Toxin's true feelings for the prejudices against her revealed themselves, Syack seemed to express regret himself. Now Cole heads towards some unknown Rock Spires to save Syack, while Toxin ponders the meaning of the tears in the sand.
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance. I do own the characters and plot.
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Spires of Peril
In the middle of the hot desert sands, there stood a formation of several rock spires. These spire formations extended miles wide, forming a canyon of sorts in the sand, each one reaching to the sky, some of them flat at the top, others forming spikes. One of the tallest ones was more towards the South east, and at the top of it were two figures.
"Comfortable?" A viera assassin in a brown assassin's outfit asked someone bound to ropes behind her. The one in the ropes was Syack, depressed and beaten. "I do hope you'll cheer up." The assassin said mockingly. "Because soon you shall feel such great pain, you'll be begging for death." The assassin said to him.
"…"
"What's that? I can't hear you when you whisper that quietly." The assassin said.
"…me."
"Speak up louder. I still wish to hear you."
"Just kill me." Syack said quietly.
"Hm? Why do you want death so eagerly?" She asked.
"…" Syack avoided her gaze and sighed. "It doesn't matter any more." Syack said.
"Well, sorry. But I need you as a bargaining chip." The assassin said bluntly.
"Sierra!" Came a human voice from below.
"What do you want?" The assassin barked.
"We have a second prisoner and another group of dolts coming this way! They should be here soon!"
"Good, bring him up." Sierra said. "Wait you dolt! Don't spring that…" The human turned around and stepped on a certain part of the sand that caused spikes to emerge from the ground and impale him. "…Trap. Oh well… I hope he felt that at least." Sierra said. An ahriman was carrying another nu mou in its talons.
"I demand you let me go this instant!" Gilbert shouted as he tried to wrest his way out of the ahriman's grip. The ahriman did let him go, and let him fall on top of Sierra's spire. "Oof!"
"So glad you could join us." Sierra said in a twisted tone of voice. She quickly tied Gilbert up tightly, enjoying it every time Gilbert yelped in pain at the rope rubbing against him.
"Ah!" Gilbert was then thrown right next to Syack. "Hm? Syack!" Gilbert gasped.
"…" Syack didn't respond.
"Good, if you're here than Cole shouldn't be far right? Matt said you were with him, yes Matt's on his way as well." Gilbert said, much more encouraged.
"Cole shouldn't come." Syack said sadly.
"Hm? Why not? What would keep him from doing that?" Gilbert asked.
"I don't deserve a rescue. I'm better off dying right here and now." Syack said.
"How could you say that? What would make you think that?" Gilbert asked, shocked at Syack's words.
"Are you two done talking?" Sierra asked. "Oh… I do believe one of your friends has arrived." Sierra said as she walked towards the edge of her spire, closer towards the cluster of spires behind her. An ahriman landed on another spire several feet away from where Sierra was and changes shape.
"I believe you have one of my companions." Cole said as he returned to his normal shape. "Hm? Correction, two of my companions." Cole said as he noticed Gilbert. "Matt should be near by then. That makes things easier." Cole thought.
"Cole!" Gilbert shouted in relief when he felt a blade pressed against his neck.
"Move one finger and he dies, slowly and painfully." Sierra said menacingly as she held a katana to Gilbert's throat.
"So… you're the infamous Sierra? Charmed." Cole said, his politeness was overshadowed by his obvious sarcasm.
"You've heard of me? How strange. Oh well." Sierra said. Her lips turned to a smile underneath her mask as she looked at Cole.
"Hm?" Cole felt the ground beneath him shake a very small bit before he teleported to another spire, avoiding spikes from impaling him at the other spire. "Nice try." Cole said. "Whoa!" What Cole wasn't expecting was a trap door to open up beneath his feet as he fell below. "Oof." Cole landed hard as the trap door closed. "Grrrr… that was unexpected, oh well I'll just…" Suddenly Cole heard rumbling inside the spire. "What? Whoa!" Cole thrust both hands out to the sides just as two flat walls inside the spire were about to crush him, Cole was slowing the walls down considerably, but they were still closing in on him inch by inch. "Grrrr… where's Casey when you need him?"
"Hm hm hm hm hm." Sierra laughed. "I hope he's enjoying being crushed inside of there. Ha ha ha ha ha." Sierra laughed sadistically.
"You're a monster!" Gilbert snapped at her.
"…" Syack remained quiet.
"Oh don't worry, you'll join him soon enough." Sierra then walked towards the edge of the spire and looked out at the desert. She quickly saw three figures out in the desert. "Ah… some more of your friends. Good, now to have them killed." Sierra said to herself. A few other people walked out of the spire formations towards Matt, Monty, and Mendoza as they walked towards the spires.
"Get your weapons ready." Matt said to the other two while he put a hand on his own weapon. Mendoza put a hand on his blade while Monty prepared his gun to fire on some poor hapless fools.
"I would hold if I were you." Sierra shouted. "Drop your weapons now." She said as she grabbed Syack and held him by the throat with her blade.
"Syack!" Mendoza gasped.
"Syack… hmmm… I guess Cole won't be too far off." Matt said. "Oh well, we should still go with the plan. I wonder how Seth is doing?"
Underground…
"Soil Veil!" Seth was traveling underground through a long tunnel he was making using his soil veil ability over and over. "Let's see… according to Matt's calculations, I should be right under the spire he spotted in his binoculars. I wonder how he knew my limits of my attack by seeing it once though? Oh well." Seth said as he prepared another string of hand signs. "Hm?" Seth felt some vibrating when suddenly. "What?" He noticed that the ceiling above him was starting to collapse. "AAAAAAHHH!!!" Seth shouted as the rocks buried him.
Above ground…
"He's late…" Monty said under his breath to the other two.
"By the way." Sierra shouted from above. "You people aren't the first to try and approach these spires from underground! I already have traps set up down there!" Sierra shouted.
"What!" Matt gasped. "Damn it!" Matt cursed.
"Now drop your weapons for the last time!" Sierra demanded.
"Grrrrrrrr…" Matt dropped his gunblade in to the sand at his feet while Monty and Mendoza followed suit with their own weapons.
"Now seize them." Sierra ordered her men below her. As her many followers walked towards the three heroes, said heroes were trying to come up with another idea that wouldn't pose too much of a risk to the hostages, but they could find none.
"Well… your job is nearly done." Sierra said to Syack and Gilbert as she tossed them to the side.
"Grrrrr… there has got to be something we can do." Gilbert said.
"… I no longer care if they kill me." Syack said.
"Get a grip Syack! You can't possibly mean that." Gilbert told him.
"No. I do mean it. I mean it very much."
"Oooooohhhh…"
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha. How pathetic this is." Sierra said with glee. "Hm?" Sierra thought she felt the ground move beneath her. "What is th… AH!" Sierra leaped back as Seth suddenly came flying out from under ground with both of his katana drawn. Sierra quickly drew hers and fended off Seth's attacks briefly before leaping to another spire. "How did you…"
"I used Soil veil to protect me before I tunneled up." Seth said. "Are you two alright?" Seth swung his katana quickly and cut the ropes, freeing the two of them without leaving a scratch on either Syack or Gilbert.
"Hey you're that Seth guy. Why are you…"
"I'm here to help." Seth said.
"He's free!" Matt shouted. Right before those three were bound by Sierra's followers, Mendoza tackled one and sent him sprawling in to a group of them. "Fira!" Not wanting to waste mana, Matt cast a fira spell that cooked the pile of bandits all the same while Monty picked up his gun and fired on the remaining close by bandits.
"Alright! Now to scale the spires!" Mendoza shouted as he rushed toward the spire formation with Monty close behind.
"I'm taking the short way thank you." Matt said as he jumped towards the spire Seth was standing on. Thought not jumping as far as Casey could have, he still leapt an impressive distance before landing on the side and scaling up the side of it quickly.
"Hiyah!" Seth leaped across to the other spire that Sierra was standing on. She raised her katana and blocked a vertical slash from Seth. Seth swung at her with his other sword, but she deflected the katana she just blocked to the side and then blocked the other katana. The two of them went at it for a brief moment in a quick but intense sword fight. Sierra quickly broke off and jumped for another spire. She landed on the wall of the one she leaped for, wall jumped to the next spire, and then wall jumped to another spire.
"Take this!" Sierra then drew her bow and aimed for Seth. Sierra started firing arrow after arrow at Seth, while he skillfully dodged them.
"Here I go." Seth said to himself. He decided to take a more direct approach by jumping for the top of the spire that Sierra wall jumped off of.
"Heh… fool, I have a trap on that spire, and you're going to jump right in to it." Sierra thought to herself when suddenly, a burst of fire exploded from a nearby spire. "What?" The spire began collapsing towards the one Seth was about to land on.
"Whoa!" Seth realized what was happening as that spire crashed in to the spire he was about to land on. He narrowly landed on a piece of rock sent flying by the crash before he jumped off of the collapsing spires and grabbing on to the ledge of another one. "Whew…"
"What happened?" Sierra asked. She looked at what was left of the spire that just collapsed. "Wait… that was the spire where I trapped."
"Now are you going to hand over my allies or will I have to kill you first?" Cole asked as the dust cleared from the half of a spire he was standing on.
Meanwhile…
"Whoa!" Mendoza narrowly avoided a bunch of arrows that came flying out of the sides of the spires.
"Yipes!" Monty narrowly avoided being claimed by spikes that came out of the sand.
"There are lots and lots of traps in here." Mendoza said as he ducked another bunch of arrows.
"Ya think?" Monty asked sarcastically as more spikes came from the ground. "Hey wait! Foot prints!"
"So?" Mendoza asked. "Oh yeah… wherever there are footprints, there are safer places to walk." Mendoza realized.
"Yep, so let's keep to the tracks." Monty said. "Unless they stop abruptly of course."
Meanwhile…
"Okay guys! I'm here to get you down from here." Matt said.
"Be careful about where you get us down to. There are traps all over this place." Gilbert said.
"You guys ready? Syack? Gilbert?"
"Just leave me." Syack said.
"Syack. Are you out of your mind?" Matt asked.
"Please just leave me." Syack said.
Meanwhile…
Sierra noticed Matt and her former hostages on the ledge, then looked at Seth and Cole. "Alright… fine then." Sierra said as she drew her bow. "HE'LL DIE FIRST!" Sierra aimed her bow at Syack as she pulled the bow string.
"No!" Seth threw a shuriken at Sierra as her fingers were about to let go of the bow.
"Ah!" She got hit in the shoulder as she released the arrow. The arrow went off aim slightly as it still flew for Syack. Syack saw it coming but made no effort to dodge it, and took the arrow to the shoulder.
"Syack!" Matt shouted. At Syack's age, he staggered just enough from the arrow in his shoulder to go falling off of the edge of the spire.
"Heh… well then. I got what I deserved." Syack said. Suddenly he felt a hand grab him by the shirt collar. "What?" He looked up to see a familiar figure holding on to the edge of the cliff wall while holding on to him. "Toxin!"
"…" Toxin had her blindfold back over her eyes, and the mask hanging by her neck.
"Toxin?" Sierra reacted to that name.
"Now's my chance." Seth jumped to the spire Sierra was on and ran at Sierra with both of his katana drawn while she looked the other way.
"Hm? Ah!" Sierra gasped as she saw Seth coming at her, she was unable to react now. Her end was nigh.
"…" Cole's eyes popped open as Matt's did as well. "Matt… do you feel that?"
"Yeah but… it can't be. Can it?" Matt asked him with his thoughts. The spire that Seth and Sierra were on started shaking violently, throwing both of them off balance enough where Sierra fell backwards and Seth nearly went sailing over her.
"AAAAAAHHHH!!!" Seth shouted as he fell towards the sands below. He quickly made handsigns. "Earth veil!" He created a small platform of earth out of the side of another spire and caught it. "Whew…"
"Hang on Cole I'm coming over there!" Matt shouted. He took a few leaps and bounds, carefully avoiding traps and landed right next to Cole. "Where is it?"
"Right at the base of that spire." Cole answered as he pointed at a large creature.
"Aaaaaahhh… free from that blasted netherworld. Ah yes… and I can already feel the pain in this world. Ah ha ha ha ha ha." Laughed a large, 7'0", gray skinned, horned creature.
"Damn it!" Matt shouted. "What the hell is a demon doing here?"
"I don't know Matt, but we're the only ones who can fight it. Let's go!" Cole said as he hopped down from the half spire he was on.
"Hey wait for me!" Matt said as he opened two vents on his gun. "Ice shot!" Matt jumped above the demon and rapid fired numerous icicles.
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" The demon cried as icicles embedded themselves in to his shoulders and back. "Who dares lay a blow on me?!" The demon bellowed as it turned to see where Matt was landing. The demon made a scimitar like sword appear in its hands in purple flames as he charged at Matt.
"Aeroga!" Cole cast a large tornado around the demon and sliced it up with blades of wind.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"
"Wow… that was easy. Compared to a century ago that is." Matt said.
"Matt, even though he's not here let's not talk about that." Cole said sadly.
"Right." Matt sighed. "Hm?"
"Grrrrrrrr… ha ha ha ha ha." The demon laughed as it stood up. "For mortal beings, you are strong. But make no mistake, the misery in your world, makes me far too powerful." The demon said.
"Crap." They both said.
Sierra was above them while Matt and Cole battled the demon with incredible ferocity. She watched as they avoided all of the traps around them, dealt devastating blows, received devastating strikes, stood back up and retaliated. "They're… powerful…" Sierra thought. She then looked at Seth, who was still clinging to the rock platform he made. "I should finish him off but…" Sierra then turned and saw Toxin helping Syack on to a small mesa spire.
Meanwhile…
Toxin helped Syack up on to a near by rock spire, which thankfully didn't have any traps. "You should have just let me fall." Syack said bitterly.
"…" Toxin seemed to look at Syack for a moment. "You aren't afraid of me now. Why?"
"…" Syack sighed heavily. "You should have let me fall, especially after what I did to you."
"You… regret what you said?" Toxin asked. Surprised. "Those tears… were tears of regret?"
"Yes." Syack said. "I had always been taught that the 'others' were the untouchables, the unholy ones. And when my grandson heard of that…" Syack's eyes watered up. "Heh… that was probably the first time he ever shouted at me." Syack said, his tears seeming to be a strange mixture of happiness and sadness.
"Your grandson?"
"He asked me the one thing I had never been taught to think of." Syack said. "He asked me… 'They're still people aren't they? They're just different like the five races aren't they?' That's what he asked me." Syack said.
"…"
"Since then… I've tried to forget about what I was taught. Especially since my grandson died." Syack said sadly as more tears started to come. "I've… I've dishonored his memory, by being too weak to let go of what I was taught." Syack said. "He could never forgive me."
"Syack." Toxin said as she stood up and turned away from him.
"Hm?"
"I forgive you." Toxin said.
"You…"
"And… could a boy that loved his grandfather, ever not forgive him?" Toxin asked.
"…" Syack let these words sink in for a moment before…
"Look out!" Toxin jumped in the way of a few arrows that were about to strike them, swinging her katana to block them.
"Drat it all… I thought I had you." Sierra said from a rock spire above them. "Toxin… I can't believe you're alive. After I had fought you, dragged you here, and then you escaped." Sierra said.
"Well then Sierra, all is well." Toxin said as she pointed her katana at Sierra. "We can finish what we STARTED!!!" On the strike of started, Toxin jumped up to the top of the spire in a single jump, preparing to cleave Sierra in two.
"Indeed we can!" Sierra said as she drew her own katana. The second Toxin landed the two of them began clashing blades with each other. Toxin would swing high, Sierra would block high then swing low. The two kept trading blades back and forth, never seeming to be able to overpower the other.
"I will kill you." Toxin said in almost a whisper.
"Only if you can defeat me." Sierra responded. The two then jumped away from each other.
"Slip rain!" Toxin cast a spell that caused a rain cloud to form above Sierra, the rain almost instantly formed a puddle underneath Sierra's feet that made her lose her balance. "Hiyah!" Toxin lunged at Sierra with her sword ready to cleave her in two.
"Grrrr…" Sierra twisted her body around so that the low friction surface would force her whole body to spin around, thus adding momentum to her sword swing. She easily deflected Toxin's sword slash and threw Toxin off balance.
"Ah!" Toxin cried as she first lost balance and then felt a foot kick her in the waist and send her sprawling on to the ground. Toxin stood quickly and blocked a sword strike from Sierra when Sierra suddenly kicked Toxin off the edge. "Aaaaaaahhhh!"
"Ha ha ha ha! I hope you enjoy all of those spike traps I planted where you are about to fall." Sierra laughed. "Scream louder for me when you die!" Sierra shouted in glee.
"Soil Evidence!" An earthquake ravaged the area Toxin was about to land in. Toxin was pleasantly surprised when she landed on sand instead of spikes.
"What? That earthquake must have disrupted the spikes but who…"
"Wild Tornado!" A large tornado then surrounded the rock spire Sierra was on. "Ah!" Sierra embed her sword in to the ground and clung to the handle for dear life as the wind battered her body all around. "Grrrrrrrr…"
"Thank you Syack." Toxin thought as she stood back up.
Meanwhile…
"Whoa look out!" Monty shouted.
"For Sierra!" A bunch of guys leaped out to take down Monty and Mendoza.
"Wild swing!" Mendoza spun around with his sword in hand and took down all of the guys about to jump him. "Rush!" Mendoza then rammed a guy hard enough to send him crashing in to three guys behind him. "Greased bolt!" Mendoza then took the lot of them down in one quick sword move.
"Stop shot!" Monty fired bullets at various units, stopping the flow of time for them. "Aaaaahhh! They're above us!" Monty shouted as he tried to shoot down everyone above them.
"There are too many of them!" Mendoza shouted.
"Thundaga!" Suddenly large lightning bolts struck the many units and took them out in one fell blow.
"Huh?" The enemies were confused as to where that came from.
"Blizzaga!"
"GAAAAAHHH!!!" Large icicles then erupted from the ground and impaled the enemy units.
"Thanks Gilbert!" Mendoza shouted while giving a thumbs up.
"It's the least I can do." Gilbert said from the spire above them.
Meanwhile…
"Rah! Rah!" The demon was slashing at Matt with super powerful sword strikes, who was barely able to block them.
"I don't get it! This is the exact same type of demon from one hundred years ago. It should be just as strong as the last one, not stronger!" Matt thought.
"You're forgetting that a lot more negative feeling is about Ivalice these days. It's going to keep getting stronger." Cole thought back to Matt.
"RAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" The demon swung its sword vertically, meant to slice Matt in two. Matt rolled out of the way to avoid the slash that caused a fissure in the earth it struck.
"Fire bomb!" Matt threw a few Molotov cocktails at the demon.
"Argh!"
"Flare!" Cole caused the air around the demon to explode violently.
"AAAAAAUUUUGGGHHH!!!"
"Dagger!" Matt then threw multiple daggers at the demon.
"Aaaaahhh!" The demon then seemed to inhale, in spite of the lack of an apparent mouth or nose. "Rah!" The demon held out a palm and shot out a black burst of fire at Cole.
"Force shield!" Cole quickly created a magic shield in defense only to receive a wicked strong punch once he let it down. "OOF!"
"Take this!" Matt was preparing to swing his sword at the demon, who spun around and smacked Matt towards a rock spire. Matt not only went straight through that spire but kept plowing through about eight of them, causing them all to collapse on top of him.
"Matt!" Cole cried in worry. "Whoa! Suppress your emotions for now Cole, don't feed this demon." Cole thought to himself calmly.
"Ha ha ha ha." Cole turned in a thundrake and narrowly stopped a sword from splitting his skull.
"Uuuuuurrrrkkk…" Cole was pushing evenly with this demon as the demon tried to overpower Cole.
"You are strong indeed for a mortal. I'm sure more like you could even take our sentinels." The demon said.
"Sentinels?" Cole asked with a thundrake's growl.
"It matters not for you mortal." The demon said. "GAH!" Suddenly a fierce explosion hit him in the side and caused him to topple over on to his side.
"Let's get one thing straight…" Matt said calmly so as not to feed the demon. Cole looked over and found Matt covered in dirt, bruises, and a few scratches. "Nobody… drops about eight small mountains on me… and gets a happy Matt."
"Has anyone even dropped that many on you before?" Cole asked.
"No but you wouldn't all butterflies and daisies if someone did do that to you." Matt said.
Meanwhile…
"…" Sierra calmed down as the tornado finally died down. "Well Toxin, come and get me!" Sierra shouted as Toxin appeared at the top of the mesa.
"Very well then. Here I am!" Toxin said as she brought her sword down. Sierra blocked it with her blade. The two began clashing blades once again, but this time Toxin was having a clear advantage. Sierra was forced on to the defensive, only able to get in one or two slashes at a time. Toxin then managed to land a deep cut in Sierra's arm.
"Argh!" Sierra screamed as the blade cut in to her arm. Sierra regained her composure and swung at Toxin, who barely dodged backwards and only suffered a light scratch on her head. However, her sword also snagged on to Toxin's blindfold. "Hm? Oh ho ho!" Sierra chuckled with delight.
"Hm? Ah!" Toxin was too busy checking the bleeding cut on the side of her head to realize the absence of her blindfold.
"So Toxin… you are one of them?" Sierra asked. "Oh how simply delightful." Sierra said very sadistically.
"What does it matter if you know! You'll die here!" Toxin toughened up and lunged at Sierra. Toxin's slashes were more aggressive than before, but this time Sierra gained the edge and slashed her in the leg. "Augh!" Sierra then stabbed Toxin in the other leg. "ARGH!"
"You have grown up hated… despised. Loathed for something you were born in to." Sierra continued to say sadistically as she wrenched her katana in Toxin's leg before yanking it out forcefully.
"AUGH!" Sierra then kicked Toxin. "You…"
"You act tough, you put on a frightful front because it hides the pain you feel for what you are." Sierra said.
"Stop…" Toxin hissed.
"You felt afraid of the whole world that had turned against you. You feel incomplete, I bet you didn't even know who your real parents were."
"… Stop." Toxin hissed, now on the verge of tears.
"You are just a freak of nature." Sierra said as she kicked Toxin again. "That has no right to live." She then cut Toxin's shoulder. "And should burn in hell." She said as she prepared to strike her the deathblow.
"Throw!"
"AUGH!" Sierra felt several shuriken embed themselves in her back. None of them hit vital organs, but they weren't exactly pressure point massages. "You…"
"Leave that woman alone." Seth demanded as he drew his swords.
"What do you care? Do you even know who, or what she is?" Sierra asked.
"She is someone who needs my help. That is all that matters!" Seth said with determination as he charged Sierra. Sierra was fending off Seth's sword attacks and occasionally taking a slash of her own. Seth then kicked Sierra away, tossed his swords up and made a few hand signs. "Metal Jujutsu: Metal Veil!" A golden metal cloud then covered Sierra and blocked her vision.
"What is this? Augh!" Sierra felt a sword stab in to her waist.
"Now then, surrender or I'll have to kill you." Seth said as he looked her in the eyes.
"Grrrrr… you mean it don't you?" Sierra asked rhetorically. "Never." Sierra said as she drew a knife and stabbed Seth in the stomach.
"Urk!" Seth felt the knife penetrate him, and only coughed out blood when she started wrenching it in to his stomach. Sierra then let Seth hit the ground, taking glee as she watched him try desperately to cling to life.
"Hm hm hm hm…"
"Earth heal." Toxin cast earth heal on Seth, leaves made from mana fell on to his wounds and started to heal them.
"You… why won't you just stay down!" Sierra shouted.
BOOOOOOOOOOM
"Wah!" To the surprise of all of them, a black fireball struck the spire and the part of it Toxin and Sierra were standing on started to collapse. "AAAAHHHH!!!" Sierra shouted.
"AAAAAAAHHH!!!" Toxin yelled.
"I've got you!" Seth stifled the pain and dived for the collapsing edge and reached out a hand, barely grabbing Toxin by the hand. Seth looked in to Toxin's eyes as he held on to her.
"No!" Toxin looked away, praying he didn't see her eyes.
"…" Seth paused for a moment, but then smiled as he pulled her up. "Are you alright?" He asked kindly.
"Wha…"
"She gave you some pretty nasty wounds." Seth said. "Augh… but… I guess I'm not doing so hot myself." Seth said weakly.
"Why are you… being so… kind to me?" Toxin asked. This was something foreign to her. She wasn't too surprised by Cole's reaction, but she was amazed that she didn't frighten this boy.
"Oh… you mean being something different?" Seth asked.
"Yes, why aren't you afraid of me? Why aren't you hating me?" Toxin asked as they kneeled there.
Seth gave her a warm smile. "You haven't done anything wrong just by existing. There isn't a crime in that." Seth said kindly. "So… are you alright?" Seth asked.
Toxin kneeled there, staring incredulously at this boy. She was truly, truly shocked by this. Toxin felt at peace now, probably for the first time in her life. "…"
"Are you alright?" Seth asked in a concerned tone.
"…" Toxin practically tackled Seth and started kissing him.
"!!!" Seth was a little surprised by this at first, but after about a second he didn't resist and returned the kiss.
"Okay I'm here!" Syack finally realized he could teleport to the top of the spire and did so. "Yeuck! On second thought… I'll leave you two alone." Syack said as he teleported off of the top.
Meanwhile…
"We've nearly got him!" Matt said.
"But we still need to take him down soon." Cole said.
"Just die!" The demon raised his sword and started running at them when it stopped suddenly. "Hm? What… what is… this…?" The demon asked no one. It shook violently, it dropped its sword. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" The demon clutched its head, hit its knees and started writhing in pain. "What is happening?!?!" The demon yelled in agony.
"Hm?" Both Matt and Cole were confused at this. "Did the damage we did to it catch up or something?" Matt asked.
"Somehow… I don't think that's it." Cole said. "Oh forget it! Now's our chance!"
"Right! Demi!" Matt encircled it with a large dome of gravity in constant flux. Being pulled and pushed and crushed in all directions.
"AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!"
"Flare!" Cole once again cast flare on the demon, raising the temperature to an explosive spike.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" The demon yelled as it was vaporized by the spell.
"Hm… strange, I would have though it would take more than that to have finished it." Cole said.
"Was something else hurting it maybe? But what?" Matt asked out loud. "Oh snap! You forgot about the others!" Matt shouted at Cole.
"Me!?! You didn't remember either!" Cole argued back. "Oh never mind. Let's go." Cole said as he turned and teleported.
"Man… I knew I should have gotten some fairy shoes." Matt sighed as he ran in the same direction, jumping along the cliff sides, easily avoiding any traps.
Meanwhile…
"Fire sword!" Mendoza cleaved through about five bandits before the sword disappeared. "Augh!" A few arrow traps then hit him in the back.
"Meteor!" Gilbert called a large meteor from space to crush a number of soldiers.
"This is getting us nowhere!" Monty shouted.
"Star Dust!" A large cluster of meteors bombarded the numerous bandits and crushed them all.
"ARGH!"
"DOH!"
"NOOO!"
"LADY SIERRA!"
"Wait… who?" Gilbert was wondering who cast that spell. He looked behind him to find Syack standing there.
"Miss me?" Syack asked.
"Syack!"
"Hello!" We're still down here!" Monty shouted.
"I can fix that." Came Matt's voice.
"Huh? Whoa!" Matt then leaped to the top of the spire while holding both Monty and Mendoza. "Oooooohhhh…" Mendoza was a little dazed by the sudden jump, but he nonetheless regained his balance.
"Great, now where is Toxin?" Cole asked as he appeared behind the rest of the group.
"Toxin?" Gilbert, Monty, and Mendoza asked.
"Where's Seth?" Matt asked.
"Seth? Is he that whippersnapper that was with Toxin?" Syack asked.
"With her? Alone?" Cole asked, very panicked.
"No need to worry master of nu mou." Toxin said as she suddenly appeared behind the group with Seth, her blindfold back on. Hers and Seth's wounds healed for the most part.
"Who's the lady?" Monty asked.
"A friend Monty." Seth said.
"…" Matt then shrugged. "Ah well. We're now getting back together again." Matt said with a smile.
"Yeah… we are aren't we?" Mendoza asked.
"Duh." Monty said. Both he and Mendoza laughed a little at this.
"Well, this turned out to be chaos." Cole sighed.
"But we made it through. And we'll be able to handle anything together now. Once we meet with the others." Gilbert said.
"Right." Toxin said hopefully.
"Right." Seth agreed.
"Wrong."
"Hm?" The others turned to a spire above them to find a battered and bruised Sierra clutching something in her hand.
"Give up Sierra. You've lost." Toxin said.
"No… if I'm going down… I'M TAKING YOU ALL WITH ME!!!" Toxin shouted as she held up some switch attached to a wire. She threw the switch and pretty soon, explosion after explosion sounded through every rock spire.
"Whoa!"
KABOOM
KABOOM
"Look out!"
KABOOM
"We're going to get buried alive!"
KAAAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM
The entire formation of Rock spires collapsed, leaving a gigantic cloud of dust in the desert, nothing visible through it. After what was perhaps the longest several minutes of a spectator's life, a single large dome of earth was above the rest of the rubble. The dome then receded in to the earth as our heroes emerged.
"Whew…" Seth sighed as he hit the floor. "Good thing… I managed… soil veil…" Seth sighed.
"Soil veil?" Cole asked surprised. "Hmmmm…" Cole gained a truly interested look in his eyes. "Bah, never mind." Cole said.
"Well Cole, it's a relief we met back up isn't it?" Matt asked.
"Yes it is." Cole sighed.
"So… now what Cole?" Toxin asked.
"Now… we continue to Materia Woods of course." Cole said.
"Master Cole… do you mind… if we rest here tonight?" Mendoza asked.
"…" Matt and Cole looked at each other, then smiled. "Sure." They said at the same time.
"Good." Syack sighed. "I could use a rest." Syack said groggily.
As the party set up camp, Cole and Matt had one other exchange of thoughts. "Matt."
"Yes?" Matt asked.
"I believe you lost the bet to him." Cole thought with a smile.
"Don't remind me…" Matt thought back to him.
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Next chapter, Laura and Hunter still have to deal with Blaze. How will they fare? Find out.
P.S. I know it's obvious but… for those of you who might not have noticed, these latest few chapters are not in chronological order. But I'm sure all of you noticed that, so this message is kind of moot. Oh well. Read and review!