Final Fantasy: Rise of Despair

When we last left off, the Racemasters and their allies, along with the Black Army, made their plans to prepare for the final battle while many reveal their motifs. Now both sides are about to compete in the final showdown. What will both sides do? Who will be victorious? What will become of Ivalice after this? Now let us proceed with this chapter, that has a somewhat clichéd title.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance, I do own the characters and plot.

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The beginning of the end

"Okay, all of you, stick to the plan!" Harris shouted as he and the Racemasters dashed ahead of the rest of the troops behind them. Cole morphed in to a coeurl while the other Racemasters picked up speed. As they got closer to the Black Army, they suddenly jumped clear over the top of them to the top of other buildings.

"Huh?"

"Why are they leaving us alone?"

"Focus on those other guys!" Another soldier shouted.

"Fire breath!" Kyle breathed a stream of flame that incinerated the first few black soldiers.

"Raaaaaaaaaahhh!!!" Adam charged head long and as he plowed through the Black soldiers he sent several flying in to the air.

"Ifrit!" Laura summoned Ifrit to burn several black soldiers, finally both armies met and began the madhouse. Left and right, blades exchanged, spells were cast, arrows flew, and brave warriors died.

"Secret art! Deluge veil!" Seth cast deluge veil, the waves swept over the army, silencing any mages it touched.

"Fight us now!"

Meanwhile…

The Racemasters kept jumping from roof to roof as they made hast towards Bervenia palace. "Ready?" Harris asked.

"You know I am." Matt said.

"Here we go!" Heidi shouted. The five of them jumped from the closest roof top they were on, over the moat, and landed on the walls.

"There they are!" Black soldiers pointed up at the five Racemasters.

"Flamethrower!"

"Fire breath!" Casey combined his fire breath with Matt's flamethrower and cleared away a large group of black soldiers right next to the wall. The Racemasters hopped down and landed gently. Harris and Cole grabbed Heidi's hand and began charging her with mana.

"I'm ready! Ifrit!" Heidi summoned Ifrit, charged by the mana both Harris and Cole used for Firaja, Ifrit was almost impossible to see with as many flames enveloping him there were. Ifrit then covered the entire courtyard with flames, incinerating every Black soldiers to the bone with intense flames. When the flames cleared, the Racemasters looked around at the ashes without batting an eye.

"That was even easier than expected." Casey said.

"Let's make our way to the throne room." Cole said.

"Right." Everyone agreed. They walked up to the doors leading in to the main castle without resistance, opened the doors up to reveal a large room with a blood red carpet leading from the entrance to another set of double doors. The five Racemasters walked up to these doors and opened them, finding a small room with a large magic circle.

"Hm… a warping magic circle." Heidi observed.

"That's right but…" Cole noted the seven smaller magic circles around it and the three red magic circles, making ten small magic circles around them. "How interesting…"

"This is a soul seal." Harris said in amazement.

"I guess I still don't know enough of this… what is a soul seal?" Heidi asked.

"Well, a person uses a special form of sealing magic that binds a certain number of souls to the seal." Cole said.

"Yes, it is impervious to all other forms of magic, and only the creator of the seal and whoever's souls are bound to it may enter whatever is sealed." Casey continued.

"See those three red magic circles? That means that three of the guys who had their souls bound to this have already died." Matt said.

"Hmmm… then if I had to guess…" Heidi started.

"Right, the Black King created this seal, and had his Colonels, Generals, and his Marshal offer their souls to him." Harris conluded.

"We know the last two Colonels are out their on the field… perhaps we should have helped them." Cole said.

"I don't think so… we have to be the ones to deal with the Black King and the generals, it wouldn't do to waste more strength than we have to." Heidi said.

"She's right." Harris said. "So… we'll just figure out which one is bound to which soul, and we'll be able to trace it."

"Right…" Casey said as he fixated on one magic circle. "I know which one I'm going after." He said as he turned, ready to leave the room.

"As do I." Matt said.

"…" Cole looked at one. "Yes, I know which one as well."

"I'm ready." Heidi said.

"…" Harris was completely fixated on one magic circle. "I'm the only one… who should follow this soul." Harris said. "We'll take care of our targets, and then meet back here."

"Alright." Cole said.

"Good luck." Casey told everyone.

"I'll see you guys later." Matt said confidently.

"Be careful everyone." Heidi said. The five Racemasters turned, and left the room.

Meanwhile…

"I'll try this one… secret art! Armor veil!" Seth used a different secret veil, this time metal powder gathered around him, but then the entire cloud attached to his body. "…" Seth looked at many oncoming arrows. He stood there and let them hit him, and they bounced off of his body harmlessly. "Let's go!" He dared the black army. He charged in with his katana and began quickly and rapidly slashing his way through the black soldiers, none of their weapons were able to get past his now metallic body.

"Shadow bind!" Toxin quickly zipped through a group of soldiers and touching their shadows, binding them where they stood. "Now!"

"Throw!" Jessica threw shuriken at the many black soldiers that were bound by their shadows and killed them. "Wah ha ha ha ha!" She drew her swords and began fending off many black soldiers at once.

"I won't back down, I won't back down." Jason kept telling himself as he aimed his bow at many black soldiers, piercing their skulls and leaving them dead.

"Ultima fist!" Will punched a single soldier with a glowing fist, the soldier then became incinerated by purple mana that expanded from his body and took down the Black soldiers around him. "Ha ha! Now this is interesting!"

"Gilbert! Fira!" Stacy cast fira on a few black soldiers, while it didn't kill most of them, it got their attention long enough for some generic allies to finish them off.

"Thanks Stacy! Meteor!" Gilbert quickly dropped a large meteor on a large group of black soldiers. Mendoza then leaped in front of Gilbert and fended off several soldiers at once.

"Rush!" Mendoza then sent them all flying backwards with a massive swing of his sword. "Fire sword!" Mendoza created a sword from flames and slashed through a dozen soldiers before it disappeared.

"Covered from here buddy! Ultima bullet!" Monty fired a glowing bullet that struck a soldier in the middle of a large group, a dome of light purple mana then expanded and took down that soldier and all of the surrounding soldiers.

"Be careful! That attack uses a lot of mana!" Kyle warned as he rapidly thrust his lance. "War CRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!" This caused many black soldiers to freeze in their tracks for a moment.

"Eat this!" Hunter fired his arrows in to the hearts of those stunned soldiers.

"Prominence!" Syack caused fire to leap up all over the battlefield, frying soldiers everywhere.

"Wild fire!" Blaze used a different ability and shot out a stream of flame as he spun around and around. "Heh… they can't beat me now." Blaze said.

"Rah!"

"Hm?" Blaze turned around to see black soldiers mere inches away from burying their weapons in his backside, unable to react, he could only wait for the end.

"Ugh!" Suddenly those soldiers fell dead with knives in their backs.

"Huh?"

"Heya." Blaze looked at the guy who threw the knives, it was non-other than Brently in the flesh.

"What the heck are you doing here?" Blaze asked as he fought off black soldiers, driving his flaming fists through their chests.

"Well…" Brently flipped away from several attacks as he threw Molotov cocktails at the attackers. "I've been running from my families' history for too long… time I made up for what they did." Brently said as he stabbed soldiers while rolling around. "Now go find that guy you're after! I'll hold them off!" Brently shouted.

"Hmph… not bad, for a Gataway." Blaze said as he barreled through the ranks of the black soldiers.

"Now bring it on!" Brently shouted.

Meanwhile…

"Hmmm…" Casey walked in to the old coliseum, and saw a figure standing in the middle of it. Casey looked around at the empty coliseum. "So… you picked the old coliseum for our final battle?"

"Of course… it's a battlefield worthy of true warriors." General Agres said as he looked at Casey.

"…" Casey looked at Agres angrily. "I doubt you even have the right to call yourself a warrior Agres. Not by the way you live."

"No… it is you who has no right to call himself a warrior. Much less call yourself the bangaa Racemaster." Agres said as he spun his pole arm around above his head. "And after this battle… I'll prove it." He said as he jammed the spear end of his pole axe in the ground.

"Fine then… whomever walks away from this battle alive, is the one who is right… that is the way the world works isn't it?" Casey asked rhetorically as he drew his sword.

"Heh heh heh… I look forward… to my victory." Agres said, getting his pole axe out of the ground.

Meanwhile…

"Hmmm… I must get the name of this place's decorator." Matt said in a ho-hum manner as he looked around the training room, with the circular center and the pillars arranged around it.

"How can you be so light-hearted in this situation?"

"Hey, it wouldn't be any fun if it was all poetic tragedy now would it?" Matt asked with a big grin.

"Uuuuuuugh… I should have killed you in that school…" Mis groaned in an annoyed tone as he came from behind one of the pillars.

"Hey… your fault, not mine." Matt said. His face then got a serious look on it. "Okay, no more jokes to you now… it's time to end this." He said as he drew his gunblade and looked at Mis.

"My thoughts exactly." Mis said as he prepared his tonfa.

Meanwhile…

Cole came in to some living room like room inside the castle. It had sofas with green stripes, a table among the three sofas, and large windows. "You know… for someone who is about to battle me, you are awfully relaxed." Cole said to General Diabol, who was sitting on one of the sofas, reading a book.

"Hm hm hm hm… you know why? Because I know what spells you have in your arsenal… I know how I'm going to fight you… the cards are in my favor… and you know little of my form of magic." Diabol said with a smile.

"When you say it like that… most would think that." Cole said. Diabol put the book down and stared at Cole. "But no… I'm the one holding all the cards Diabol… and I intend to play my hand."

"Hmph… enough talk, we said we would determine who was the better mage with this battle… so why wait? Let us prove it now."

"Very well… this time… I have a special place in mind…" Cole said as a pink magic circle formed underneath the two of them.

Meanwhile…

Heidi was in a room with many pillars, and torches on all of them. "What kind of room is this?" Heidi asked out loud. "Hm?" Heidi ducked as a purple arc of mana sailed over her head and cut through one of the pillars. "Attacking me from behind? Why?" Heidi asked as she turned around to stare at General Mali.

"I was just seeing, if you'll be worth my effort this time girl." Mali said. "And maybe… just maybe you will."

"Of course I will." Heidi said as she drew her katana.

"You weren't last time… so what makes you think there'll be any difference?" Mali asked.

"Because… there is a difference." Heidi said. The two ran at each other and clashed their blades together.

Meanwhile…

"Shiva! Ifrit!" Laura summoned both Shiva and Ifrit next to her. Shiva first caused icicles to erupt in various places around her, impaling black soldiers. Then Ifrit cast a ring of fire around her, frying even more soldiers. "Hmph…"

"Titan!"

"Gah!" Laura was sent flying in to the air by a slab of rock that suddenly shot up from underneath her. She hit the ground, and weakly stood up. "Grrrrrr…" Laura turned and looked at General Cious standing behind her. "I thought you were dead…"

"You thought wrong… I won't die until I prove myself." Cious said as she drew her katana.

"Prove yourself?" Laura asked getting in a fighting stance.

"I am aware that surpassing the Viera Racemaster is out of the question, but outside of that… I will prove that I am the greatest summoner alive." Cious said. "And your death at my hands, will prove it!"

"Hmph… we'll see." Laura hissed.

Meanwhile…

"Geez… this is so dull." Ize said as he hacked his way through more clan members and average soldiers. "Hm? Whoa!" Ize leaned backwards and narrowly avoided a fireball that sailed right over him.

"I'm back for a rematch…" Blaze growled.

"Heh… well well… someone is persistent. Fine then… this should be slightly more amusing." Ize said with a smile.

"Oh trust me… it'll be the fight, of your life." Blaze threatened as he took his stance, his arms fully ablaze.

Meanwhile…

Harris walked up a long set of spiral stairs as he ascended the tower. "Only I can fight him…" Harris thought. He opened the door at the top of the stairs, and entered a bed chamber. The purple carpeting had blood red roses arranged so that the carpet looked perfectly even in its design. The bed had silk curtains and white covers and pillows with gold supports. The drawer was fine oak, and the end tables beside the two doors and balcony window door were black with a bouquet of dead roses in each one that somehow seemed to compliment the overall dark room. "He's… still up." Harris said as he entered the door next to the bed. Harris found himself climbing even more stairs until he reached the top and entered through another door.

"I've been waiting." Came an emotionless voice. The room Harris was in was a circular room. The walls and floor were finely polished, gleaming gold and purple walls with eight-pointed yellow stars adorning the purple sections of wall. The center of the room had a circular section of purple with a large, yellow and orange eight-pointed star, and at the center of that star, stood Marshal Agon.

"I expected you would be Marshal." Harris said calmly.

"When you challenged me so foolishly… to save the life of your comrade, you were different. But I would be lying if I expected you… to be the human Racemaster." Agon said as he put a hand on his sword, walking back towards the outer ring of the purple section of the floor.

"So Marshal… tell me… you've been handed so many defeats, yet you seem unfazed. Is this because you expected our victories?" Harris asked as he stood on the edge of the purple section of floor. The two started walking along the purple section of floor, still straight across from each other. "Or are you simply the kind that is fazed by nothing?" Harris asked.

"Perhaps both." Agon said. "It would have served my master well if you had died in the previous battles, and it would still do well if you died here." Agon said. "And I have every intention… of killing you." Agon said.

"Well then… shall we end this exchange of words then?" Harris asked as he stopped walking, drawing his swords.

"Lets." Agon said as he drew his sword. "Come." The two dashed from their positions, met near the center, clashed blades, leaving the sound of metal to echo through the air.

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Believe me readers, things are just getting warmed up, and I have intense battles coming on. Until I bring them to you, read and review.