Final Fantasy: Rise of Despair
As if any of you actually need the recap this time around. Nya.
Now we approach the final battle of this story. Prepare yourselves for the fight we have all been waiting for. The five racemasters; Harris, Heidi, Cole, Matt, and Casey vs. The ominous Black King. The battle that will determine the fate of Ivalice is now.
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance, I do own the characters and plot.
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Battle of Fate
"That had to have been the most I've ever cast matra magic." Harris sighed as the five of them stood around the now red magic circle with ten smaller red magic circles surrounding it. All five of them refreshed and ready for a new battle.
"Yeah and healing all of our injuries was no picnic either." Heidi sighed.
"Thankfully you and Cole could work together well in that respect." Casey said.
"Now then, we're all healed, we've cast our beneficial status affects on ourselves, what are we waiting for?" Cole asked with a smile.
"I'll tell you what I can't wait for… round two with the cloaked dude." Matt said as he twirled his gunblade in his hand.
"Well, I don't think I need to remind everyone what's at stake here, just remember what we talked about when we were going to confront him." Harris said.
"Right." The other four said. Casey stepped in first, followed by Cole, then Heidi, then by Matt, and finally Harris entered last.
The magic circle flash five times and each time one of the Racemasters walked through it. The five of them were now in the council chamber, the large table in the center, the five chairs on either of the long sides, and the larger ornate chair at the head of the table. "He's in there." Harris said as he walked towards the large set of steps behind the head chair. The other four followed him, they approached the gigantic double doors and thrust them open.
"Yep, there he is." Matt said as they entered the throne room. The Black King wasn't sitting in his throne, rather he was gazing out one of the large windows.
"At last… you are… all here…" The Black King said.
"Yes, and this time we intend to take victory." Cole said.
"…" The Black King said nothing for a moment, he simply looked out the window, not looking at the five Racemasters who have come to take his head.
"What? Don't tell me you're actually worried about us being here." Casey said as all five of them slowly drew their weapons.
"Perhaps I should have expected the legendary Racemasters to make it this far." The Black King said, this time not taking his usual pauses for deep breaths. "It's amazing… what started out as a small clan in the mountains have managed to bring together this small army of people… small but powerful enough to stand against my once invincible army." The Black King said.
"Pride leads to downfall Black King." Heidi said as she gripped her katana more tightly.
"And even then… the Racemasters were brought together again by this… and even when defeated by me they simply returned, like cockroaches that refuse to die, only now more powerful…" The Black King said. "This game has cost both sides, it has cost me many a pawn… it has even cost me my generals… and now even Marshal Agon himself… he was a most valuable piece." The Black King said.
"A game? I don't believe it fair to call war a game." Harris said calmly.
"Marshal Agon… he did something, I did not think was possible." The Black King said.
"…" None of them spoke this time. The Black King then turned quickly to face them.
"No… Agon did what was unthinkable to us…" The Black King said as his cloak began to burn away as purple flames consumed it. "… he mastered the power… that no mortal has ever mastered."
"Seems we were right about you after all." Harris said as the purple flames completely consumed the Black King.
"It does add up." Cole said.
"So… what kind are you?" Heidi asked the Black King.
When the smoke and flames vanished, where once stood the cloaked figure we came to know and despise, stood a 6'6" figure clad almost entirely in dark gray armor. The armor on the forearms and shins had razor edges, the shoulder plates and the lap plates had numerous spikes protruding grotesquely, and the body armor had an assortment of razor edges and spikes coming from it. The helmet had an open mouth with razor sharp teeth, the horns on the helmet resembled that of a bull only with a sword-like edge. Looking through the eyes and mouth of the helmet only looked as though you were staring in to blackness, but the rest of the body that could be seen had black skin with many red cracks in it that looked like fissures. Finally, the sword is how it looked last time; gray, jagged, and a black handle of thorns.
"My name is Alph." The Black King said. "And I am one of the six sentinels of the demons." Alph said, clenching his fist.
"Sentinels? That's new." Matt said.
"The gate between the mortal realm and the demon realm opens randomly. It could open in the time between any second and several years. And in that time only one demon can ever pass through." Alph explained as he paced in front of his throne, eyeing the Racemasters.
"So… when exactly did you come through? Ten years ago?" Casey asked. "Or earlier?"
"Twelve years ago…" Alph said. "It was then that I realized something… something grand." Alph said before he paused. "The power gained from negative feelings in the demon realm was low, but up here… closer to the misery and despair… the power I gained was significant."
"So… you killed the king and won the tournament for the throne?" Cole asked.
"No… the king really die from an illness, but I bided my time, lay my plan down more carefully while I waited for him to die. So when I took the throne, I placed heavy taxes that cost family if not paid to create misery, pain, hatred, and allowed my soldiers to cause whatever havoc they felt like in order to feed my strength…" Alph said.
"And you shared your power with your generals and Agon." Harris said.
"Yes…" Alph responded. "Once I shared my power with them they were essentially a part of me and I couldn't draw power from their feelings, so their emotions mattered little." Alph said. "But… once I gained enough power… enough power to surpass the king of demons himself… I will fulfill the ultimate purpose of the demons!!!"
"And that is?" Heidi asked.
"To destroy… all life." Alph said slowly. The Racemasters merely gave him a hardened stare, intent on their goal. "Ah… you're not surprised… nor frightened. I suppose you've already figured most of what I've told you out." Alph said.
"Yes, we have. The clue that gave it away was my recent encounter with another demon." Harris said. "It's mana felt very similar."
"I even managed to figure out how much time we had left to face you before you became too powerful for even us to overcome." Cole said.
"I thought you might…" Alph said. "Had you been a day later you wouldn't have stood a chance." Alph remarked as he twirled his sword around a few times and took a stance. "Now you stand little chance."
"We'll see about that." Harris said. Cole transformed in to a thundrake, and then the racemasters lunged for the Alph.
"Come meet your end!" Alph cried as he lunged at them. Cole and Matt broke off from Harris, Casey, and Heidi and those three formed a triangle around Alph and began an intense swordfight with him. Alph's speed, power, and raw skill would have easily exceeded any of those three alone, but even now he was able to fight toe to toe with them.
"Bolt shot!" Matt fired several bullets in to the air, each one exploded one after the other and rapidly struck Alph with lightning bolts.
"Gr!" Casey struck him in the back with his sword and threw him off balance.
"HIYAH!!!" Heidi kicked Alph straight up in to the air where Cole was waiting with his hands folded.
"TAKE THIS!!!" Cole then slammed his fists downward. Unfortunately, Alph disappeared and reappeared above Cole with his sword ready to stab Cole in the back.
"Air Blast!" Harris quickly hopped up and sent two arcs of air from his sword at Alph. These blasts knocked Alph away from Cole but Alph had his own tricks.
"Black barrage!" Alph sent numerous black orbs of mana firing all over the throne room, ricocheting off of the walls and striking the Racemasters from numerous angles.
"Tempest!" Cole cast a spell that caused numerous lightning bolts to strike across the room and obliterate every single black orb and strike Alph.
"Mog attack!" Matt appeared behind Alph and knocked him forward towards Harris.
"Hiyah!"
CLANG
Right before Harris struck Alph, Alph blocked Harris' swords with his own sword and began a brief sword fight with Harris. Alph knocked one of Harris' swords in to the air. Harris managed to jump over the top of the Alph and grab his sword mid-jump.
"Multi-shot!" Heidi fired numerous arrows at Alph while Harris was in the air. Alph swung his sword once and stopped the arrows in mid-air.
"Hiyah!" Casey nearly dug his sword in to Alph's head, but Alph blocked it with his own sword and then quickly turned around as Harris and Heidi both tried to attack him. Alph blocked this attack again but failed to block several bullets Matt was launching at him.
"FIRAJA!!!" Cole started to create the pillar of flames around Alph when.
"BLACK WALL!!!" Alph slammed a fist in to the ground and not only formed the usual black dome, but made it expand and knock the three Racemasters around him backwards.
"OOF!!!"
"RAH!" Alph hit Cole in the chest with a black blast and then charged Heidi. Heidi quickly regained her balance and managed to avoid and block a few strikes before Matt jumped in and assisted her with rapid sword swings
"HASTE!!!" Casey cast haste on Harris while Cole cast haste on Heidi.
"Here we go! Mog attack!" Matt again shoved the Alph backwards where…
"Faster!" Both Harris and Heidi performed a faster attack in an X-formation.
"Ugh…" Alph collapsed to his knees for a moment from this attack.
"ICE BREATH!!!" Cole in the form of an Ice drake and Casey together breathed blasts of ice on to the Alph.
"Ice spreader!" Matt assisted this attack with an icy gale from his gunblade.
"BLACK PULSE!!!" Alph formed a pulsating black orb of mana that started randomly firing rays of dark mana around the room.
"Gah!"
"Argh!"
"Ah!"
"RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" Dark mana extended from Alph's sword and he spun in a full circle.
"Expert Guard!" Casey took a defensive stance and held his sword vertically to block the spinning blade of dark mana. However this was pushing him around the room and he wasn't slowing down Alph's attack in the least.
"Mog guard!" Matt braced himself and got behind Casey and tried to help him slow it down.
"Defense!" Harris did the same thing, finally slowing down the attack.
"Okay! I'm ready!" Heidi said as Cole finished channeling mana through her body.
"Now!" Cole shouted.
"RAMUH!!!" Heidi summoned Ramuh right above Alph.
"Hm?" Alph looked straight up as a concentrated blast of lightning struck him with incredible force. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"
"Casey! Matt! Now's our chance!" Harris shouted as the attack stopped.
"Right!" They shouted. The three ran for Alph with their swords ready.
"MOG RUSH!!!"
"BEATDOWN!!!"
SHING
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Alph yelled in agony as the three mighty blows cut in to his flesh. Alph stood there for a moment, before slowly collapsing.
"Whew… that proved to be…" Matt started to say when it dawned on him. "Way… too… easy…" He said.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" Suddenly five concentrated blasts of dark mana erupted from underneath each of the three Racemasters.
"You had to be right didn't you?" Casey asked sarcastically.
"COLE!!!" Heidi shouted.
"GAHHHH!!!" Alph tackled Cole and the two went flying all the way in to the council room where Cole crash landed on the table.
"DIE!!!" Alph jumped towards Cole with his sword drawn when he was stopped in mid-jump. "Urk…"
"Stop…" Cole's hands were glowing with mana.
"And how long… do you think you can hold me with that spell?" Alph asked as he started regaining movement.
"Stop…" Matt lent some assistance and tried to hold down Alph. "He's getting loose…" Matt cringed.
"JUMP ATTACK!!!" Casey started ricocheting around the room quickly before thrusting in to Alph.
"GAH!!!"
BOOM
A huge cloud of dust rose from where the two crashed. "Did it work?" Matt asked.
"GAH!!!" Casey went flying out of the dust cloud and straight in to the other wall.
"GAH!" Both Matt and Cole began facing a massive barrage of pointed black blasts of mana from the tip of Alph's sword.
"HIYAAAAAHHHH!!!"
"Hm?" Alph looked up and noticed Harris and Heidi about to bring their swords down on top of him. Alph blocked the two attacks and became absorbed in a sword fight with the two of them. At first Alph seemed to have the edge but then…
"Conceal!" Heidi disappeared and reappeared right behind Alph and managed to strike her sword against his back.
"Gah!"
"Ha!" Harris made ten quick strikes on Alph's body before Alph knocked him away and blocked another strike from Heidi.
"Gah!" Icicles began bombarding Alph's back as Matt performed a rapid-fire variation of Ice shot.
"Grrrrrrr…" Alph disappeared and then reappeared in front of the open door to his throne room. "Black Gale!" Alph opened his arms wide and a spiraling blast of black mana seemed to appear from him and wreak havoc on the five racemasters.
"Gah…" The five of them could feel the mana cutting in to their skin, but seemed powerless to do anything about it.
"Giga flare!" Cole finally managed to look past the pain and cast a spell. The air around Alph heated up and started rising rapidly until…
KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
"GAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" The Black King was sent flying back in to the throne room by the massive explosion until he crashed in to the steps leading up to his throne.
"HAAAAAAA!!!" Harris and Casey tried to rush him at the same time but…
"Black wall!" The Alph again expelled the two of them with a burst of the black wall ability. He then floated in to the air and blocked a sword strike from Heidi. The two battled in mid-air briefly before kicking in to the wall just in time to turn around and knock Matt away from him.
"Meteor!" A gigantic meteor was about to crush Alph, but Alph thrust his fist upward and shattered the flaming meteor with a single punch.
"You have got to be kidding me." Heidi gasped.
"Throw!" Harris threw several kunai at Alph, but he blocked those with his sword. "Heh…" Harris smirked.
"What?"
"RAH!" Harris pulled his hand backward and Alph was yanked towards him.
"What!!!"
"YAH!!!" Harris' foot ignited right before kicking Alph's stomach and sending him flying straight towards Casey.
"HAH!!!" Casey grabbed Alph, slammed him in to the ground and then ran while dragging him along before throwing him back in to the council room.
"Firebomb!" Alph then met face-to-face with a molotov cocktail.
BOOM
Alph was lying in the middle of the wrecked table and chairs, his armor blackened, and his body smoking.
"Do you think that did it?" Heidi asked as she walked in to the room.
"Heh… of course it didn't…" Alph gasped.
"Crap…" All of them said.
"BLACK DEATH!!!" Alph summoned up a massive tornado of black mana and several needles of dark mana started flying from his body.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"
"CARBUNCLE!!!" Heidi summoned Carubuncle in front of herself and Harris while the others made their own defensive abilites.
"It's a hell of a lot more fierce than last time…" Casey groaned as the needles pierced him in spite of him in his expert guard pose.
"Harris… Matt… you two are the only ones free right now…" Cole said while holding his force shield in front of himself and Matt.
"Matt…" Harris said.
"Ten-four good buddy." Matt said. Both of them gathered their mana and…
"THUNDAJA!!!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
"Argh!" The massive lightning bolts managed to strike Alph with enough force to interrupt the attack. He looked around at all of the Racemasters, all gathering up their mana.
"Now or never…" Harris said.
"SWORD OF THE JUDGE!!!"
"DEMI-RAY!!!"
"DEMOLITION!!!"
"BAHAMUT!!!"
"DIVINE BLADE!!!"
All five of the Racemasters attacks flew for Alph, surging with power, and ready to strike him down.
Meanwhile…
"We've finally breached the gates…" Adam sighed.
"Now we can just form a defense from in here to fend off the remaining Black soldiers." Seth said.
"Right, we won't suffer as many casualties this way." Hunter said. "We've… suffered enough…" Hunter said sympathetically as he looked at Laura.
"Hey… anyone else feel that surge of mana?" Gilbert asked.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
"What the hell was that?" Blaze asked as he turned towards the direction of the main castle building.
"Never mind that, we have to keep defending ourselves." Brently said as he drew his throwing knives.
Meanwhile…
"That… had… to have worked…" Cole gasped.
"That better have…" Casey said as he gasped for air as well. Everything was silent for what felt like an eternity. The Racemasters stared at the pile of smoke from where Alph should be. Their eyes were fixated on that spot, and they were watching. Watching for what could mean victory… or defeat.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"I… think its over…" Harris said with an exasperated expression.
"No…"
"What?" Heidi asked horror-struck.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Suddenly a countless number of tentacles formed from dark mana flew from the pillar of smoke and impaled all five of the Racemasters in various places.
"GAH!!!" Casey yelled as one pierced his shoulder and others pierced his legs and arms.
"Urk…" Matt gasped as the tentacles pinned him to the wall.
"Now you will all die… slowly… and painfully…" Alph said in a sinister tone of voice.
"AGH!!!" Heidi was barely avoiding the remaining tentacles.
"No!!!" Cole shouted as the tentacles forced him to the ground. Harris himself was also pinned to a wall, he looked around at all of the others. He looked at Casey and Matt crying in pain. He looked at Cole gasping for breath.
"AH!!!" Heidi's screams of pain echoed through Harris' ears. An echo, that did something inexplicable.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" A burst of mana from Harris' body blew back the tentacles pinning him to the wall. He ignored the pain searing through his body, he ignored the blood coming from his wounds; the only thing that mattered was stopping him. Stopping the cause of all the pain, all the misery. Harris sidestepped the tentacles as he ran for Alph. "RAAAAHHH!!!"
SHING
"GAH!!!" Alph yelled as Harris' sword protruded from his the front of his chest. The tentacles all disappeared, and Alph stood there, motionless.
"Whoa…" Casey and Matt said in awe.
"Wait…" Cole whispered. "…" All of them paused for a moment. "HARRIS LOOK OUT!!!" Cole shouted.
"GAH!!!" Harris shouted as Alph backhanded him and sent him flying in to a wall. Alph gripped his sword and ran for Harris ready to impale him as Harris tried to regain his senses.
"HARRIS!!!" Heidi ran for Harris as Alph was ready to drive his sword through Harris.
"!!!" Harris noticed Heidi and Alph running for him.
"HARRIS!!!"
SHING"No! Not again!" Harris thought. Heidi was in front of him, Alph's blade was drawing closer.
SHING
"…"
"No… no…" Cole said while shaking his head.
"Hm? AH!" Heidi opened her eyes, and in front of her was Harris, his back to Alph, and Alph's sword going straight through his body and protruding from the front.
"Heh…" Harris said with a smile as the blood began to leak from his mouth.
"No… Harris why?" Heidi asked as she tried to fight back the tears.
"I… couldn't… live with… letting two people… I cared about… die for me…" Harris gasped. Alph withdrew his sword roughly, and Harris collapsed in to Heidi's arms.
"Ha ha ha… HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!" Alph laughed.
"Harris… NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Heidi cried as she held his motionless body.
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