9. The Last Stand

"Damn," I cursed as I sank down on the fallen tree that has been serving as my bed during my stay here in the swamp as an oversized insect. "We gave Kel and his team the beating of their lives yesterday, found five of the keystones, searched the whole day now for the last one and… nothing."

"It truly sucks," Munchin agreed. He threw his four hands in the air and swore. "We covered all areas of the swamp that we hadn't searched yet, even the campsite of our lovely opponents, and still we didn't find that damn sixth keystone."

"Maybe the Occuria hid it to prevent their entertainment from ending too soon," Ether offered, sounding just as pissed-off as we were after a day of fruitless searching. "That would just be the kind of thing they'd love to do."

"Can't argue with you there," I nodded. "But I don't think they are that stupid. They know that if they break the rules they themselves made, we'd go on a rampage."

"Damn right we would," Munchin hissed as he threw another log on the fire.

"So if the Occuria didn't take it, and we looked everywhere, even underwater, then where is it?" Ether demanded, crossing her arms. "You don't suppose Kel could have it, do you, Icy? We haven't seen him anywhere since yesterday. Same for Gale and Blaze."

"Indeed, and that is what worries me," I replied slowly. "What if they had the keystone all along, so that when even if we beat them, we still wouldn't win?"

"For all you know, they could have drowned in the swamp when we tossed them in it," Munchin offered, sounding like he didn't really believe what he was saying himself.

I scoffed. "Please, it's Kel we're talking about. He really wouldn't allow himself to die so lamely by simply drowning in a dirty swamp."

"Point taken, but then where are they?" Ether snapped angrily. "We looked everywhere in the swamp today, and I mean really everywhere. Not a sign of them. And they can't have left the swamp, for that's against the rules."

My gaze drifted away from the campfire and came to a halt to the great shadow of the ruins of the capital in the middle of the great swamp.

"Maybe, Ether," I said quietly. "Maybe they haven't left the swamp at all. Maybe they fled and hid in there…" I motioned to the Necrohol of Nabudis. "Technically, going in there doesn't count as leaving the Deadlands… And there's a whole network of tunnels, halls and rooms in there that we haven't searched yet."

"Icarax has a point," Munchin said to the only female member of our little group. "After their defeat, the Necrohol would indeed be a logical place to hide themselves with the keystone. One can easily fortify himself in one of its chambers, and its riddled with traps. It would be perfect for three defeated guys."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Ether said, standing up and spreading her beetle-like wings. "I don't know about you two, but I'm truly sick of being an insect. So let's not waste time and go over there now. It's time to exterminate some pests once and for all."

---

With Ether saying it like that and glaring at you, you don't argue, you simply nod and follow her. That's exactly what Munchin and I did. We quietly agreed with her and flew towards the fallen city. We made no sound as we softly dropped on a roof that had a hole in it, almost being true spirits of the mist.

"There's no telling where they are in there," Munchin whispered to us. "So let's stick together and not be rash. For once, we're at the disadvantage here. There's little space in the corridors to fly, so we'll be vulnerable to any traps they may have placed."

"Munchin is right," I agreed with a nod. "So let's keep our eyes very wide open. If anybody notices something, or even thinks he heard or saw something, tell the others. Better to be safe than sorry. If we loose in there, all our efforts up until now will have been for naught. Cause if they trap us in there, nothing will stop Kel and his team from getting their hands on our keystones."

"Like hell I'm going allow that to happen," Ether growled, after which she did promise not to be rash. With that being said, we quietly descended through the hole into the dark, eerie place known as the Necrohol of Nabudis.

---

I never liked this place, not even when I was still a human teenager simply playing Final Fantasy XII on his Playstation 3. It was eerie, the monsters tough, the traps agitating and overall gave a depressing feeling, what with it being the ruins of a city and all. The only good thing about the Necrohol of Nabudis was that you could get Chaos and the Zodiac Lance here. Both of which I got, but that is kind of besides the point.

Suffice to say that stalking through the dead city as an oversized insect in real life didn't improve my vision of the place much. Monsters were everywhere, too, and it was a pain to fight them off while trying not to make any sound. Most of the time it was me doing the job, simply using my repulsion power to make the air around a monster crush it, or make some of its own limbs or vital organs repel it, that sort of stuff. Then when it was dead, quietly allowing it to gently drift towards the floor. That took a lot of time and effort, but we had no choice. We didn't know where the enemy was, if they were even here in the first place. So we had to try to keep our presence a secret for as long as possible.

We searched through the whole upper level of the Necrohol, but found precious little aside from some knots of rust and monsters. Which could only mean that either the keystone was deeper inside the ruined city, or that it wasn't here at all. Seeing no other option, we flew down the stairs leading to a lower level of the eerie ruins, ready to search there. Ether went first, with me bringing up the rear. We flew, all three of us, just a feet above the floor, to avoid making noise when walking. There was considerable strain on my mind by having to constantly focussing on repelling myself from the floor, yet the ceiling at the same time to prevent myself from shooting through the roof.

We cleared the lower level too without finding a thing except more monsters and a Zodiac Lance.

"Well, that was a waste of time," Ether growled. "We've now looked absolutely everywhere and still didn't find that damn final keystone, or Kel and his buddies!"

I was about to agree, when a light suddenly appeared above my head as I realized something. Ether and Munchin frowned at the lamp, but I ignored that for now.

"I just realized… We searched everywhere, yes… Except for the sealed rooms. You know, where Chaos and those two other bosses are sealed?" I explained hurriedly. Munchin and Ether's eyes widened and they got a look on their faces that told me they felt like slapping themselves on the head for overlooking such a thing. Satisfied, I extinguished the lamp.

"Icy's right, those are the only three places we haven't looked at yet, so let's go and search each of them," Ether said, eager to get into some action.

"I've got a better idea," Munchin interrupted, as he grabbed Ether by the arm to make sure she didn't fly off. "Let's go to the place where Chaos was sealed. Knowing Kel, he would go to the room where the big boss of this place resides. That's the kind of person he is."

---

The gates were shut, but not locked. Yet, since we didn't have the medal that made them open, that didn't matter anyway, we couldn't get in the normal way. I could try and repel the gates away from each other, but somehow I doubted I had the mental strength. Repelling yourself, or an enemy, is one thing. Repelling gates of more than a ton each is in an entirely different league. Seeing my hesitation, Munchin decided this was his moment to shine. Confidently he marched up to the gates, before forcing his four armoured and clawed hands between the two incredibly heavy gates.

Before the wide eyes of me and Ether, Munchin used his inhuman strength to open the gates, that kept the Esper Chaos from leaving this cursed place, with nothing but muscle. The feat did take all of his strength, that much was obvious, as when he had forced the gates apart far enough for the rest of us to slip through, he fell to his knees, panting heavily. If he still could have sweated then, I dare say he would have been drenched in it. I wanted to pat his shoulder in a congratulating way, but I no longer had hands to do that with, so I refrained from doing it at all. Ether helped our mosquito friend to his feet, and then we went inside.

The first thing we noticed when we entered was that the room was totally empty. No Esper or Team Kel in sight. Had Kel and his team rid the Necrohol of Chaos, or somebody else? Had team Kel even been here? We could get in here thanks to Munchin his inhuman strength. Nobody on team Kel had that, and I doubted they could have gotten their hands on the medal that opened this place. So they never could have been here in the first place, I realized. Why didn't I think of that sooner, before we made Munchin exhaust himself so much?

My thoughts were interrupted when Ether cried out:

"Damn it, Icy, good thing we listened to you. Look, it's the keystone!"

Munchin and I snapped our heads in the direction Ether was pointing. And sure enough, there, on the floor at the centre of the room, was the final piece of our key to getting our normal bodies back. Alone and unguarded, not even by an Esper. Suffice to say none of us bought it.

"That's a trap if I ever saw one," Munchin scoffed, crossing his arms.

"Very true," I agreed. "The question is, who made it: the Occuria, or Kel and his friends?"

"Does it matter?" Ether wanted to know.

"Very much," came my reply. "If the Occuria set it, then it is meant to be overcome somehow, meaning there's a way to get the keystone. If Kel and his team set the trap, it's meant to do one thing only: bring us down."

"You got a point, again." Ether's eyes narrowed and she too crossed her arms. Carefully our beetle-like friend with the scarab head observed the keystone lying just a few steps ahead of us. Our key to freedom, so close to coming into our possession. Yet it was the fact that it was the last one, that made Ether, and the rest of us, so cautious. The Occuria and Kel would both want to defend this last one as good as possible, both for their own reasons. The Occuria wanted their entertainment to last some more, Kel and his friends wanted to prevent us from taking us all home. Whatever the trap, it would be one with enough power to stop us, at least for a while.

"Say, Icy," Munchin began. "Can't you, I don't know, repel the keystone towards us?"

"That's not a bad idea," I answered slowly. "But what if the trap will be triggered by moving the keystone?"

Ether seemed to be getting stressed, and for good reason. It was extremely irritating to see our ticket to our normal bodies laying just in front of our noses, while we couldn't just go and get it.

"You know what," the only female of our little group said curtly. "Forget all this stressing about triggering the trap or not. I'm going in for it."

Before either of us could respond, she began pacing towards the keystone with big strides. When Munchin and I finally recovered from her hasty, rash decision, we moved in to stop her. And that's when it happened. We were perhaps only five steps away from the keystone, when three energy blasts came from behind us, from outside the room, and hit the ceiling above our heads. Damaged and corroded by years of contact with mist, the roof gave out, and tons of rubble rained down on us.

I tried to keep them off me with my repulsion power, but some of those pieces of debris weighed more than a ton, as not only the ceiling, but rubble from the floor above also came down. My mind gave out under the strain and my repulsion power faded. A second later, I was knocked to the floor, and together with my companions, buried under tons of stone.

---

When the dust settled down, there was not a sign of live coming from under the pile of debris. Assuming we were death, team Kel victoriously strode into the room. In his hand, the red-and-silver leader of the opposite team held a little gift of the Occuria: the medal that opened this room. After their crushing defeat the day before, team Kel had taken the only keystone they still possessed with them into the Necrohol of Nabudis. There they made a deal with the Occuria: the medal for more entertainment. With that medal, not a room in the ruins was unreachable for them, and with that in mind they had set a trap.

Knowing full well that Munchin and Ether knew how Kel thought, at least somewhat, they placed the keystone inside the chamber of the big boss of the ruins. Chaos protested, naturally, but Kel and his team kindly convinced him to fuck off. Then they weakened the ceiling so much that one more round of blasts would bring it down. With the trap set, they had simply hidden themselves until we had entered the Necrohol, and then started stalking us as we stalked through the ruins ourselves. As soon as we were inside the chamber of the Esper, the trap had been sprung, thus resulting in us being in our current predicament: buried under tons of stone.

"That went well," Kel smirked, kicking a pebble out of his way as he strode over to the keystone and retrieved it. "They went down, probably forever, the keystone is still ours and the ones they gathered are ripe for picking."

"Never thought you'd win by using your brain instead of brawn, Kel," Gale laughed as he leaned on Blaze. The wounds he had received during his battle with me yesterday had still not healed, at all.

In fact, all members of team Kel were in quite a bad shape, no thanks to the battles they had fought with us over the possession of the keystones. Gale was limping, because of me stabbing straight through his leg and hip yesterday. Blaze had dents all over his armour, and a continuous headache thanks to the beating Munchin had given him. Kel still had a sore throat from where Ether had squeezed him until he passed out, and there was a big dent in his helmet, also thanks to Ether, more precisely, the punch she had dealt to his face.

"Yeah well, miracles do happen, what can I say?" Kel grinned. He gazed at the pile of debris under which we were buried alive. "Regardless of how we did it, we still won. Despite all their victories, the final victors are still us. So let's go get the other keystones they gathered and give them to the Occuria so we can finally leave this swamp and explore the rest of Ivalice!"

"I'm all for it," Blaze replied. He made a nod to the pile of rubble that covered us. "I doubt they have any complaints."

Blaze, however, spoke a little too soon. For sure, if it had just been me and Ether, we would have died there and then. But it wasn't just me and her, Munchin was with us as well. And while in the past he had complained a lot that he didn't have any fancy power like me and Ether did aside from his brute strength, it was his brute strength that proved to be the most valuable and lifesaving power of all.

Despite being exhausted from forcing the gates open earlier, despite having tons of rubble on him, our mosquito-like friend was still conscious, and he had heard every word of the opposing team. It filled him with anger, and that anger in turn gave him the strength he needed to rise to his feet again. With inhuman strength, and while letting out a savage roar, our friend pushed the boulder crushing him off himself with his four arms. Broken, bruised and dented he might be, but most of all he was alive, and didn't look like he was going down any time soon.

"Hey bastards!" he growled at the stunned team Kel. "We ain't quite finished with you yet!"

A beastly cry escaped the enraged mosquito, and he grabbed the nearest boulder, its weight approximately a ton or two, and threw it at our foes. While they were busy running for their lives as two tons of solid rock headed their way, Munchin started digging us out. With his four arms and monstrous strength, he made quick work of the pile of debris. Chunks of rock flew everywhere, as Munchin carelessly tossed them over his shoulder while trying to save us. Soon enough the bruised and battered form of Ether was uncovered, followed quickly by mine. He grabbed each of us with a hand, while slapping us across the face with his two other ones.

"Common you two, wake up! Don't you dare die on me here, we've got some final ass kicking to do, damn it!"

After a few of those hard slaps, we slowly came to.

"Ugh," I groaned. "What happened? I feel like a mountain fell down on me."

"Close enough," Munchin snapped back as he placed me on my four feet. "Now remain upright and prepare that repelling trick of yours. We've got a keystone to conquer."

Those words dropped me with a crash in reality, and I shook my head to make the last remaining amounts of dizziness go away. I remembered what had happened now, and for the first time since arriving in this nightmare, I was glad to be an armoured insect. My metallic skin was what had kept me alive long enough for Munchin to dig me out. Glancing to my left, I could see Munchin setting Ether on her feet. Our strong-willed friend was coming to as well. Unlike me, however, her first words weren't something among the lines of asking where she was. No, they were quite… different.

"Where are those assholes?!" she cried out, her blood boiling. Munchin and I kindly pointed in the direction of Kel, Gale and Blaze, who had somehow avoided all debris Munchin had tossed around while digging us out, and had just started firing at us in a last, desperate effort to keep their keystone safe.

But we had had enough. We were now totally sick of it. Sick of the battling former friends for the sake of entertaining the Occuria. Sick of being monstrosities struggling to survive and adapt. Sick of being stuck in this stinking, muddy swamp. Sick of having to suck things dry like a leech in order to feed. Damn it all, was what we were thinking. Damn it all to hell!

And so we struck out, pushing our broken bodies far beyond their limit, but not caring that we did so. I tapped into my mental strength so much that I knew I would have an ill-making headache for the rest of the month. But I didn't give a shit about it. I just did it, and called upon my powers, with which I repelled all of the blasts fired at us. Thus I created an opening for my friends and comrades, and they seized the opportunity.

Ether called upon her power of time duplication, and summoned two of her past selves to her side. While I kept our three foes in place with more repulsion power - lengthening the duration of the headache I would get after this to two full months at the very least – the three of them dove in and grabbed one foe each. The struggling team Kel were no match for an absolutely enraged and pissed off Ether, and her grip was like bonds of steel.

Munchin, finally, had grabbed the biggest, longest piece of debris he could find and readied it like a bat, not caring that his muscles were screaming in protest. He nodded to the three Ethers. With a devious delight, the first Ether threw Blaze with all her might to Munchin, who batted the black-armoured warrior away with his boulder. Blaze crashed through three of four walls before finally coming to halt, totally defeated. Gale and Kel soon followed his example, each being batted in a different direction to make sure the both of them crashed through as many walls as Blaze did.

When the dust settled, the Necrohol of Nabudis had plenty of new doorways, and each member of team Kel had finally been defeated so crushingly that they would never rise again and attempt to take away our keystones, our normal bodies and our freedom. Once we were sure of this, we allowed ourselves to collapse, too. But not before Ether had picked up the final keystone, which Kel had dropped as soon as Ether had tossed him to Munchin to be batted away. She firmly held it in her pincer, which, if all went well, she would soon trade for her normal, human hands. We all savoured the feeling of victory, and then sank away into a well-deserved, much-needed and dreamless sleep.

The battle was over.

---

Next chapter: the battle has ended, but will the Occuria keep their word? Read it all in the final chapter of "Spirits of the Mist"!

Oh, and Munchin, I'll miss this fic too. Being a bug grows on you. But on the other hand, it opens the way for a new adventure. How do you feel about being stuck (as a human) in the classical shooter Doom II with me, and shoot hellspawn to oblivion?