Yuko: Things aren't going to be the same without Larsa around…
Misa: Yeah…I guess you're right, Yuko-chan.
Fuu: We have enough people in our party; we had to vote someone off! Like Survivor! If this story were Survivor, who would be voted off next?
Jude: Fuu.
Rozaline: Fuu.
Ashe: Fuu. Big time.
Fini: Hahaha. Fuu.
Fuu: Since when do game guardians vote off their own human?
Jeff Probst: 4 votes, that's enough! Fuu, your tribe has spoken! –Extinguishes Fuu's torch-
Fuu: Damn…where'd you even come from Jeff?
Jeff Probst: I rode on a jet ski…
Al-Cid: Fuu does not own Final Fantasy XII, and that includes characters, plots, and settings. She, however, owns herself, Yuko, Fini, Misa, Jude, and Rozaline.
Fuu: Don't worry. I ain't going no where…
Jeff Probst: But you were voted off…
Fuu: Go home Jeff! You have to host Survivor, don't you?
Misa: Just…enjoy chapter nineteen.
Going into Ivalice
Chapter 19: Chats with a Gigas
Guess what we had to do to get down to Paramina Rift? We had to go down the mountain. It actually didn't take as long, maybe about an hour this time, because we didn't meet annoying men and his game guardians and I didn't faint on everyone. Although there were some steeper parts, no one fell and broke their neck. Not even me! But after that hour, we made it down to the flat part called Paramina Rift. We just had to follow a little path all the way to our location: The Stilshrine of Miriam.
"Check this place out." I said.
"The Sword of Kings is in there…" Jude said. "Interesting."
"Jude, be careful," Rozaline said to her human. "There are lots of dangerous fiends in there."
"I don't need to be warned about anything." Jude smirked.
"Fuu," Fini said to me. "Don't forget that there is an Esper in there."
"Oh, yeah…Mateus the Corrupt." I said. "I forgot that I could use Espers…poor Belias, I haven't summoned him yet."
"Isn't that just terrible?"
I froze up. That deep voice…I have never even heard it before! I glanced all around me, thinking that Jude or Balthier would be playing some sort of stupid joke on me, but they were talking to some other people. Who said that?
"Uh…is something wrong?" Fini asked me.
"Didn't you hear that creepy voice?" I asked her.
"What creepy voice?"
"Was I…the only one that heard it?"
"Only the Legend of Raithwall can hear my voice."
There it was again. Who was talking? Before I had any time to ask who this creepy deep-voiced man was, the doors of the Stilshrine opened up wide for the party to enter. I walked in, scared and confused. The inside of the Stilshrine of Miriam didn't help either. It was cold, a bit icy on the floor, and all walls were a creepy gray color. It was also pretty dark, too. Not a good place to have a picnic or go on a date…unless you like cold, dark places, then I have the perfect place for you and your partner to hold hands and eat homemade sandwiches.
"Let's all stay on our guard," Balthier stepped forward. "Anything can jump out and scare the young lady half to death." I scowled at this remark, but sadly for me, he was right. As we began walking through the Stilshrine halls, I found this an opportunity to find out whom the mysterious voice belonged to.
"Hello voice," I whispered. I didn't want anybody to think I was crazy by talking to a random voice only I could hear. "Can you tell me who you are?" There was a bit of silence at first, where I only heard our footsteps and something dripping from behind us.
"I am surprised, Legend. We have met before."
"We have?" I said, my voice increasing in volume. Vaan and Penelo turned around and stared at me, but I looked around as if someone else had said it. They fell for it. "Where?"
"The Tomb of Raithwall. It was the first time I had made eye contact with someone in centuries."
I was trying to think who was in the Tomb of Raithwall. It couldn't be anyone in my party, not even Vossler, and the only other people in the tomb were Raithwall and…
And Belias the Gigas…
"Belias? Is this you?" I asked.
"Yes, Master."
"Since when do Espers talk?"
"Only in the minds of the Legend and Raithwall. I was trapped in the Tomb for so long, and I never expected the Legend to make eye contact with me. Because you have arrived, I gave you my powers and let you defeat me. I tried to contact you many times after you obtained me, but you never released me to fight. Just recently, I tried to contact you but I unintentionally drained your energy, which caused you to collapse."
"So that's why I fainted on the way to Mt. Bur-Omisace." I said. It all began to make sense now why I fainted…since Belias was apart of me, he used up his strength, and that means that I used up my strength, too, which caused my fainting incident. "I'm so sorry I didn't summon you yet. I'm just so caught up in this journey that I completely forgot!"
"I understand, Legend. But you will use me soon, won't you?"
"I will. I promise." I winked. For some reason, I saw a vision of Belias…smiling. Since when do you see a Gigas smile? What a vision!
"Fuu, I'm sorry to interrupt you in your conversation, but," Misa said. "Whom in Ivalice were you talking to?"
"Belias the Gigas." I said.
"You can talk to him?" Yuko asked me. "And I completely forgot about how you can summon him into battle!"
"Me too. I apologized to him about it, too. I'll use him soon, maybe our next boss fight."
We continued walking through the Stilshrine. As always, fiends would jump out of nowhere, I would almost pee my pants in fear, I let the others take care of the fiends, rinse and repeat. Guess what else was in the Stilshrine? Confusing puzzles! To prevent my brain from, I let everyone else handle that part, too. While they were doing the puzzles, I added background music. Yes. I did. I put my iPod in, put it on shuffle, and kept clicking through songs until a catchy one popped up. A good example is "Right Round" by Flo Rida. I turned the volume on my iPod up to its highest…and while Basch would push that pedestal to the right spot, he would have a catchy tune to move it to. What else were they going to listen to, the ceiling dripping?
"Please turn that down this instant." It annoyed Ashe almost immediately. She was pushing a pedestal during "Right Round" too. I sighed, turning down the volume, but then I started singing obnoxiously, just to piss her off. She turned around and gave me an evil, infuriated stare.
"You said to turn the song down, you said nothing about turning my volume down." I snickered evilly. Ashe was about to say something, but stopped herself. She pushed the pedestal perfectly into place, which completed the puzzle! I put my iPod away and we walked over to a Save Crystal (It was previously a Crystal Bug, but we kicked its ass before it even moved) and we replenished our wounds. We then entered the doors…Vinuskar was awaiting us. He was a big-ass boss.
"This ain't gonna be easy." I gulped. I got out my ninja sword and I handed Soapy to Yuko, who put on a cleansing pad and started bubbling it up, in case Vinuskar wasn't too fond with having his pores clean.
As we all readied our weapons, Vinuskar suddenly shook around a bit, as if he were ready to cast something on us already…
"Let me guess," I exhaled. "It's slow."
"We can't be slowed down this early! We have to get out of range!" Jude ordered. We all moved out of the way, and as I tumbled into a corner, we all missed the negative-effecting spell. There was a fly-like insect that was buzzing around in range. It was quite a speedy little bug, but once the spell was casted, the fly began to slow down…and I mean SLOW.
"I called it!" I exclaimed.
"That's great and all," Fini sighed. "But we have a fight to win."
"Right." I stood up, ninja sword in hand. I ran up to Vinuskar, attempting to strike him, but he pushed me all the way back to the corner I was in. I hit the wall hard, some bits of rocks and pebbles falling from here and there. "I fail."
"Fuu-chan! Use Belias!" Yuko said to me from the opposite side of the room.
"Good idea! I did make a promise!" I stood up and stood there. "How do I summon him?"
"Call my name and put your weapon in the ground."
"You gotcha." I nodded my head. I closed my eyes…that's when I felt warmth on a spot of my back. It was the orange-colored dot I saw in the mirror in the tent when we were heading to Jahara. It was warming up like crazy as I felt a small gust of warm wind surround me. I opened my eyes, and raised my ninja sword above my head. "BELIAS!!" I struck down my weapon into the stone ground…
The floor beneath me began to form a large circle. It began glowing deep, deep red color and the spot on my back was now practically sizzling…although it didn't hurt that much. I got kind of used to the burning feeling. Then, suddenly, out from the ground appeared Belias himself. Because he appeared under me, my body was lifted up, and soon I was sitting on his shoulder. I never expected Belias to be this tall. I kind of liked sitting on his shoulder, it made me feel…cool.
"You have summoned me, Master," Belias said, although his mouth (wherever his mouth was supposed to be) didn't move. "I shall do whatever task you tell me."
"Make me a sandwich! No onions!" I ordered. Belias grunted in confusion. I giggled. "Just kidding! Defeat Vinuskar!" Belias nodded his head and looked over at Vinuskar. Belias growled and then stomped over quickly to Vinuskar (who was pretty lousy in the speedy department) and used a powerful physical attack on the boss. Vinuskar was even pushed back to the wall, nearly crushing Vaan (Silly Vaan, always in the way!)
"I only have so much time to battle, Master," Belias said. "When I must return inside of you, I will perform my final attack…Hellfire. I will put a protection spell on you and your comrades."
"Aw, that's awfully nice! Can you remove it off of Ashe though?"
"Ah, I heard your arguments…but you may regret it later. She is a descendant of Raithwall."
"I know, I know, I was just kidding again!" I exclaimed.
"Time to unleash Hellfire. Thanks for letting me participate in battle."
"Anytime!" I grinned. Suddenly, Vinuskar came up to pushed Belias and me backwards a bit! This caused me to fall off of his shoulder and land on top of Ashe. I didn't apologize to her as I got off of her, and I watched in amazement as Belias used his final attack on Vinuskar. Flames appeared from everywhere and straight into Vinuskar…Belias then turned into a floating, reddish-orange orb. The orb then floated over to me and absorbed into my chest…the warmth on that spot on my back returned only for a brief moment before it died down. And as soon as the sensation disappeared, Vinuskar vanished, crying in pain as he departed.
"That was amazing, Fuu-chan!" Yuko squealed in joy.
"Don't thank me, thank Belias. He's the one that kicked his butt." I stated.
"It wasn't that awesome." Jude sighed.
"Yeah! Jude deserves summoning Espers more than you do!" Rozaline shouted. Of course, I ignored those two.
"This is what the Legend is all about," Balthier walked up to me. "Summoning the unassailable Espers and becoming history. Also, bringing peculiar questions to everyone with her clowning around…but yet, it makes us grin." Balthier gave me my favorite crooked smile once more, and this caused me to smile and blush.
"Come on guys, you're embarrassing me." I chuckled.
"Let's just find the Sword of Kings." Ashe spoke up. I guess jealousy bit her in the butt. "It's in here." Jude and Rozaline happily followed behind her as she headed towards the next door in the Stilshrine. Rozaline suddenly stopped.
"I sense threat." She said. "There is something behind these doors."
"Mateus the Corrupt." I said. "The second Esper we must obtain."
"We have to fight him, huh?" Vaan asked. He brought up his hands, cracking his knuckles. "We can take him."
"If we handled Vinuskar," Basch brought his sword up. "Then surely we can handle another Esper."
"I'm ready as ever," Jude smirked. "Nothing better than getting fit."
"The Sword of Kings is being guarded by Mateus," Ashe raised her sword too. "We shall defeat it in an instant."
"This place may be a bit scary," Penelo said. "But that isn't going to stop me from a fight with an Esper!"
"We're going to make Fuu-chan stronger once we beat up Mateus. She will be more legendary after all of this!" Yuko smiled.
"We shall fight. We shall triumph." Fran said, readying her bow and arrow.
"For the young lady's increasing strength," Balthier loaded up his gun. "We take him down." He looked over at me, grinning. I nodded my head and grinned back.
"Let's kick some icy Esper butt!" And after those words, Ashe opened the doors, and we ran inside…
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 20!!!
Woot!