No Longer Alone
Here's the penultimate chapter to this story. I hope it's a worthy one.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
The interior of an ancient temple of doom that had been constructed in an age before hers had never been something that Amelia had seriously considered at any prior point in her life, so she wasn't entirely sure what to expect when she stepped into the halls of the Black Temple. Maybe it would be filled with some sort of mystical energy that she couldn't comprehend or the entire place would refuse to obey the laws of the known world and have the structure rearrange itself at random.
In reality, it was mostly dark. And quiet. Eerily quiet. Amelia couldn't help glancing up and down the dim corridors for monsters and fiends she was sure would be jumping her any moment.
To her surprise, there was no sign of any creatures within. Judging by the uneasy reactions of the other fighters around her, this was unexpected and somewhat unwelcome. They couldn't defeat the Demon King if there wasn't any Demon King for them to fight, after all.
Soon, the thirty-odd soldiers found themselves standing in a vast, cavernous room. While several torches around the area burnt with an eerie blue flame, the majority of the place was still too dark to make out properly. And given what little details she could glean from the architecture, Amelia wasn't terribly interested in finding out more about the place.
Before she could say anything else, there was a sudden thickening in the air around all them. Subconsciously, the grip on her weapon tightened, and she shifted into a fighting stance.
Standing there, in front of the assembled group of warriors, was the Demon King Formortiis, still in the guise of Prince Lyon of Grado. A soft smile played across his face as he beheld the people who had come to face him, and he spread his arms wide.
"So you've come," he said in a soft, almost tranquil tone of voice. Amelia furrowed her brow. Back at the Narube River he had been using some sort of weird universal communication with everyone. Now, though… why was he speaking normally? "I knew you would, Ephraim. I always knew you would."
"Lyon!" She heard the lord of Renais snap as he moved forward, but she could detect the sounds of skittering in the gloom around her and she quickly shifted her gaze away from the conversation – she probably wasn't going to come to blows with the Demon King, and likely wouldn't have been a match for him anyhow. The wet, squelching sound that she had come to associate all too unhappily with the revenants were sounding deep in the darkness, as were the clattering of the skeleton warriors.
A flare of brilliant light distracted her, and she turned to catch sight of Lord Ephraim stabbing forward with Siegmund, Lady Eirika following up quickly with a series of horizontal slashes with Sieglinde. The Demon King countered with a small blast of dark energy, using the distraction to skip backwards and further into the recesses of the Temple.
Any thoughts of pursuing the Demon King were quickly erased as waves of monsters began to pour in from hidden alcoves and entries from all over the main hall. Taking in a deep breath, Amelia brought her lance up and steeled herself for one final battle.
"Whoa!" throwing himself to the side, Franz barely dodged the massive cleaver of the Cyclops as it slammed deep into the ground, carving out a deep gouge from the polished stone.
How did something so big sneak up on me? He wondered as he lifted his blade, firing a burst of light at the monster's eye. The creature howled in agony and staggered back, giving Franz the opening he needed to stab the creature in the stomach, opening a fatal wound.
Whirling, he cut down a Revenant that had been sneaking up behind him and continued moving deeper into the temple. All around him he could see his friends and allies fighting ferociously to stave off the dark swarms all around them. How were there still so many fiends left to oppose them, anyway?
Skipping under a wild halberd swing from one of the skeletons, he severed the skull from the creature's neck and kicked the collapsing body away into the darkness. Briefly he caught sight of Ewan hurling blasts of fire at a Gorgon, of Joshua weaving through the enemy ranks as his frost-blue blade whirled and slashed through his foes, of Sir Garcia bringing his axe up in mighty swings that sent the monsters flying.
Cutting down another monster that had leapt at him, Franz noted a flash of red armour and golden hair somewhere to the right. How did Amelia get so far away? Quickly, he turned and began to make his way over to her. As he did so, he saw Neimi and Ross at her side, helping her face down a pair of the centaur beasts.
Just as he reached the trio, Amelia succeeded in putting down one of the fiends, and a quick strike from Ross finished the other. Amelia looked over and gave a brief but comforting smile.
"We should stick together," he said softly, and she gave an affirmative nod.
"Yeah, I was forced away from the group by a rather overenthusiastic Gwyllgi. Come on, let's get back to the others-"
A thunderous bellow sounded from behind them, and Franz twisted to see a Cyclops lumbering through the melee, its single eye fixed in a pointed glare at the tiny group.
"Okay, seriously," Franz muttered to himself. "What did I do to get all the Cyclopes so pissed off at me?" stepping back, he raised the Light Brand and prepared himself to fire a bolt of light energy at the monstrous creature when from behind him came a low, unearthly growl that sent a shiver up the back of his spine.
Suddenly, something slammed into the ground right beside him – Franz had a brief, confused impression of a giant claw of some kind – and as it pulled back it took a large quantity of the ancient stone with it. Acting on instinct he swung and fired a bolt of light in the general direction that the attack had come from, and was rewarded with the sound of an impact and groaning, creaking sound as whatever it was moved further into the darkness.
Franz frowned. The bolt of light had briefly illuminated dark grey and purple skin… along with what appeared to be scales. Too large for a Gorgon, though, so what…? Suddenly Amelia slammed into him from the side, and as he hit the ground he saw the Cyclops' axe crush the earth where he had been standing a moment ago. Ugh. Careless.
"Thanks," he said out loud, and Amelia nodded briefly as she stood.
"Be careful next time," was all she said before she lunged at the Cyclops, with a brief jab at the midsection of the monster that drew blood. Following up behind her, Franz plunged his blade deep into the torn flesh, aggravating the wound.
Between the four of ting low the Cyclops, sending it crashing to the ground with a thundering crash. With a weary shake of his head, Franz shifted his focus to more of the skeletons marching forward in steady lines.
He's just trying to delay us. One of the bonewalkers stabbed forward with its blade. Twisting, Franz let the jagged metal flash past him and brought his blade down through the monster's midsection.
"Ah!" the cry of alarm pierced the heated sounds of battle around him, and he instinctively twisted, seeking out Amelia.
There she was! There was blood running down one leg, the remains of several Wights scattered around her body – and she was limping away from the looming figure of a Gorgon. Just as he turned to rush to her side, an Entombed shuffled into his path, rancid claws reaching forth to tear at him.
"Get out of my way!" Franz snarled as he slashed wildly at the creature, magic-imbued blade slicing through wide swathes of the rotten flesh. Amelia needed his help. Over the shoulder of the shambling beast, he could see her stumble back, barely avoiding one of the Gorgons flailing claws.
He wasn't going to let her down.
Narrowly avoiding a sweep of the creature's oversized claws, Amelia stepped forward, stabbing her weapon straight at the Gorgon's chest.
Unhappily, the Gorgon refused to cooperate in letting the young lancer kill it and the lance clattered against the toughened scales ineffectively. Uttering a tiny curse, she quickly stepped back to avoid the inevitable counterattack – and ended up colliding with a revenant that had been attempting to sneak up at her from the back.
Thrown off-balance, Amelia stumbled and one of the Gorgon's flailing arms narrowly missed her, instead striking the shambling corpse and sending it flying backwards into the shadows. Taking advantage of the distraction, Amelia struck at the creature again, putting as much force as she could into the blow.
This second strike proved more effective, drawing blood as well as even more of the monster's wrath. Twisting its serpentine body around, it swung one of its arms in an overhead arc, using it as a makeshift club. With a grunt of exertion, Amelia succeeded in yanking her lance from the Gorgon's body, falling back and avoiding the strike in the process.
And then Franz stepped in, Light Brand blazing with radiant power as he slashed forward, severing the Gorgon's arm at the shoulder in a single slash of his blade. The Gorgon howled in anger, giving Amelia the opening she needed to pierce the monster's neck with a quick thrust. A wet gurgle sounded, and the Gorgon flopped to the ground.
Amelia barely had time to give Franz a brief nod of thanks before a pink, vaguely human shape hurtled into the wall beside them with bone-breaking force. As it tumbled limply to the ground, Amelia's eyes widened in shock and fear as she recognized Neimi, unconscious and bleeding heavily.
"Neimi!" as she knelt beside her friend and tried to tend to her friend's injuries, she was vaguely aware of Franz whirling to confront the centaur that had originally hurled the archer through the air, but her attention was drawn by the severity of the injuries on her friend's body.
Her right arm was twisted at an unnatural angle – definitely broken. Her face was pale and unmoving, save a tiny trickle of blood that escaped from the corner of her mouth. There was a deep wound across her chest, almost certainly made by an axe. Quickly, Amelia uncorked her elixir and poured what remained of the contents over her wounding, praying silently that she was not too late.
To her relief, she could see the ugly wound beginning to seal itself up, but Neimi remained unconscious and Amelia didn't feel like waking her up. She wouldn't be able to continue fighting anyway – not with her arm like that!
"Neimi!" there was the sound of scuffling boots behind her, the sound of a blade piercing flesh, and an enraged scream. A moment later Colm was crouched at her side, his face pale, one hand clutching a bloody dagger, and the other reaching out to Neimi.
"Is she…?" he questioned softly.
"She'll be okay," I think. Standing, Amelia looked around at the battle all around her. Maybe she could find Sister Natasha… wait, had she even been one of those called to enter the Temple? Amelia couldn't remember.
A flash of movement from the corner of her eye alerted her to danger, and she whirled, plunging her lance deep into the Deathgoyle that had attempted to dive-bomb her. With a sigh, Amelia tore the dying creature from her lance and prepared to continue wading into the fray.
And then suddenly, as if a hidden switch had been flipped, utter silence descended upon the Black Temple, and every fiend still capable of doing so immediately halted their assault, scurrying away deeper into the darkness. Warily, Amelia stepped up besides Franz, keeping her eyes and ears peeled for any signs of hostility.
Nothing.
"Is it…" she paused, glancing around the room. "Is it over?"
"I don't know," he replied tersely. 'Come on. Over there," he said as he started for the central alter, where she could see Lord Ephraim and Lady Eirika standing silently.
Just as she neared them, however, a tiny ball of light floated up from what she could now identify as the body of Prince Lyon. The siblings of Renais were obviously stunned as well, but before anyone could do anything the floating orb of light zipped further back into a room at the far end of the chamber.
A moment later, Ephraim started after the light, his sister close behind.
With the unmistakable feeling of dread in her heart, Amelia gripped her weapon and hurried after the twins.
He had always known it would be possible, of course, that they ultimately wouldn't be able to stop the Demon King in time to prevent him from resurrecting his body, but now that the possibility was very rapidly becoming reality, Franz could feel fear flooding through his body, and he fought to keep his breathing calm.
He had to do this. There was no turning back. He had to this for everyone. For Amelia.
Abruptly they stepped into a gigantic room, the design far more elaborate and ostentatious than any of the rooms prior. The stone torches once more flickered with eerie light, throwing shadows all over the room and creating pockets of darkness all over the place. Carved statues depicting horrific beings leered down from their perches, eyes glaring down at the central altar in the very centre of the room.
Of course, what drew the attention of everyone else in the room was the gigantic, silent body of the Demon King, standing in the centre of the chamber, chains adorning its entire body.
Even as Franz watched in horror, the tiny ball of light sank into the Demon King's body, and a low rumbling began to spread across the entire room.
Slowly but surely, the Demon King began to move. As it tightened its muscles, the chains binding him snapped as if they were no more substantial than straw, falling to the ground with a horrible clattering noise.
"Ephraim!" he had the frantic shout from L'Arachel. "The Sacred Stone! Use it quickly!"
Hurriedly, Ephraim dug into cloak and held the shining jewel up into the air, letting the rainbow light spill forth into the dark room. After a moment the light began to focus itself on the Demon King's body, eliciting a roar of rage from the ancient being.
The very air in the room appeared to tremble as everyone watched in silence at the battle of wills between the representatives of light and darkness. And then, with a stunning abruptness, the Demon King slumped forward, thick arms reaching forward to support its body as the ball of light was drawn into the Sacred Stone.
"They – they did it!" Amelia exclaimed. "They've trapped the Demon King's soul! They did it!"
"Yeah, but…" Franz frowned. "If they soul's gone from the body… why is it still moving?"
Slowly, ponderously, the body of the Demon King righted itself, focusing the glowing intensity of its eyes on Lord Ephraim – and the Sacred Stone that he was holding.
"The soul is captured, the body is all that remains!" the king of Renais bellowed the words as he raised his lance to rally everyone else. "Everyone! This is it. Bring the Demon King down!"
Almost instinctively, Franz looked to Amelia, who was staring up at the massive figure of the Demon King, her face set into a determined glare. She noticed him staring at her after a moment, and a smile crossed her features.
"Let's do our best," she said softly.
He nodded in reply. "Here goes."
As they charged to the lumbering Demon King, the remaining monsters began swarming out from the shadows, obeying their dark lord's single command to protect him. Franz ducked, dodged, whirled, slashed, and stabbed, barely breaking stride as he headed for the Demon King.
Abruptly, a Bael lurched down at him from the shadows, multiple beady eyes glaring at him. Dodging a strike from one of its many legs, Franz retaliated by stabbing it in an eye. With a scream, it staggered back, before regathering itself and preparing to lunge.
A deep roar quickly put an end to that as a massive clawed foot descended, crushing the Bael into pulp. Franz craned his neck back, staring up at rotting flesh, hanging scales, and a glaring, reptilian face. The zombie dragon opened its mouth and let loose another earth-shattering bellow before it struck down with its claws again.
Amelia gaped with shock at the sudden appearance of the zombie dragons. Bad enough that they had to deal with the Demon King, but when had he ever gotten monsters like those on his side? Suddenly she remembered the claw that had attacked them from the shadows, and her insides churned. He'd been saving these for the last stand, it seemed.
Hurriedly, she ran over to help Franz, plunging her lance deep into the thigh of the beast attacking him. The dragon whipped its head around to stare at her, and then lunged, opening its mouth to reveal rows of serrated teeth, each easily the length of her arm.
How can something so big move so fast! Amelia ducked away just in time to avoid getting shredded, and was about to retaliate – maybe aim for the eye this time – when a surge of brilliant light flooded the room, temporarily blinding the lancer as she staggered away.
Where did that come from? In the split second of confused impression she'd received, it sounded like it had come from the Demon King himself. Shaking her head to dispel any afterimages, she saw the zombie dragon bearing down on her, jaws opened wide.
With a cry, she leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding getting bitten again. Franz was rushing up to her side, firing blasts of light energy against the dragon's thick hide that did little more than leave scorch marks on the skin.
"It's fast," she commented grimly.
"Those pillars," Franz pointed to a corner of the chamber. "It's too big to fit inside there so we can trap it and slow it down."
Nodding in agreement, Amelia began heading for the pillars, willing herself to reach them in time before the dragon caught up with them again. There was a roar from behind her, the beating of giant wings-
Amelia threw herself to the ground and the dragon swooped over her, narrowly missing another attempt at seizing the young girl in its jaws. It landed heavily on the ground, its elongated neck twisting in an attempt not to let her out of its sight.
Taking the opportunity, Amelia struck again at the dragon's haunch, tearing apart more skin and spilling dried, blackened blood. Am I actually damaging this monster? She wondered.
The dragon reared back again, probably trying to snap at her with its jaws once more, when suddenly she caught sight of a flash of green and suddenly Franz was balancing himself precariously on the monster's snout, one hand still clutching his weapon.
"Fra-!" she cried out, and was cut short as Franz stabbed his blade deep into the dragon's eye. At the same time he loosed a burst of light energy and the dragon reared back, howling in anger and dismay. With a quick snap of its neck, Franz was sent flying onto the cold stone floor.
Amelia rushed to his side, noting with relief that Franz was sitting up and rubbing the back of his head, which meant that the injuries weren't that severe. Probably.
"What did you do that for?" she questioned rather brusquely as she helped him to stand.
He shrugged and gave a tiny grin. "It was worth a shot."
She was about to fire off a retort when there was a thud of a claw impacting stone behind her, and she turned in time to see the dragon open its maw, looking for all the world as if it were about to breathe fire at them.
Amelia wasn't sure if zombie dragons could even breathe fire, something about the idea of zombies and fires not mixing well came to mind, but she didn't particularly want to find out. "Get down!" she tackled Franz, knocking him to the ground and out of harm's way as a wave of noxious black gas spewed forth from the dragon. As it struck her, she let out a gasp of surprise and fell back, one hand reaching up to clutch her head.
"What…" she mumbled thickly as she fought to reclaim her feet. Everything appeared… distorted. Wavy. She fumbled for her lance, almost dropping the weapon as she turned to confront the dragon once more.
"What…" she repeated as she staggered forward, her stomach lurching. What did it do to me?
"Amelia!" Franz had started for her when the zombie dragon bellowed again, and Franz turned to fix the offending monster with a stare of cold rage.
The undead beast drew back again, opened its jaws – and was abruptly tackled to the ground by another dragon, this one clad in scales of gold. Myrrh! As Franz watched, she opened her mouth and let loose a blast of energy into the side of the zombie dragon, drawing an enraged cry.
Quickly, Franz turned back to Amelia, whose eyes were swimming in and out of focus as she stumbled forward blindly. Instinctively, he reached out to catch her as she staggered, almost dropping her lance in the process.
"Are you… what happened?"
"Fine…" she waved the question away, the effort at nonchalance ruined by how the words came out slurred and unsteady. "I'm fine."
Franz grimaced and reached inside his satchel for an elixir. Whatever that breath was didn't appear to have caused any physical wounds, but giving it to her couldn't hurt, could it?
Amelia accepted the bottle with a grateful smile, and lifted it to her lips – only for the both of them to realize that her hands were trembling too much to hold the bottle steady. As carefully as he could, he guided her hands to her mouth, letting her drink the clear liquid.
Just then, a bellow of rage sounded behind him, and Franz whirled to confront the zombie dragon once more – it had thrown Myrrh off itself and was now advancing on the two knights again, its remaining eye glaring at them with undisguised malice.
Franz tightened the grip on his weapon, and was about to charge the dragon when another flash of light came from the Demon King – and this time a figure was sent flying through the air to land in a crumpled heap not quite at Franz's feet.
"Sir Joshua!" Franz gaped as her recognized the mercenary.
"Oh… hey," Joshua managed to grin through a mouthful of blood. "Don't worry… not as bad… as it looks."
That's good, because it looks incredibly bad to me. Biting his tongue, Franz refocused on the rather more immediate threat of the enraged zombie dragon bearing down on him.
My weapon isn't doing enough damage, I need something else, something- And suddenly his gaze was drawn to the weapon Joshua had been holding, now lying several feet away on the ground.
Audhulma. The Frost Blade.
Throwing himself into a forward dive, Franz cleared the space between himself and the Sacred Weapon. Seizing the blade, his eyes widened in momentary surprise as he felt power flood through his body.
Turning, Franz raised the blade just as the dragon reached him, one claw slashing downwards. Ducking to the side, Franz slashed at the dragon's flesh, leaving a pale blue trail whenever Audhulma cut.
Again he stepped back to avoid a wild attack, again a retaliatory blow. The magic imbued in the weapon was starting to have an effect; the dragon was starting to weaken, if he could just keep this up for a little more-
The massive tail of the dragon whipped around, slamming into the side of Franz's head and sending him crashing to the ground. Even in his disoriented state he managed to keep his grip on the weapon, and he struggled to reclaim his footing as the dragon began to advance once more.
And then there was a shining blur in the air, a wet thunk! of impact, and the zombie dragon reared back with a screech as the lance Amelia had hurled found its target – the dragon's remaining eye. Seizing the opportunity, Franz struck, plunging the blade into the dragon as deep as he could, almost all the way to the hilt.
The dragon gave one more thunderous cry before it collapsed, this time for good. Pulling Audhulma out from the inanimate corpse, Franz turned to see Natasha bathing Joshua in a healing light, finally letting the swordfighter pull himself to his feet.
"Thanks," he said softly to the cleric before turning to face the knight. "Not bad swordplay, Franz. You've gotten better."
"Ah…. Thanks."
"Anytime. Now, if you don't mind – my sword, please?" Somewhat embarrassed, Franz quickly handed Audhulma back to Joshua just as an ear-piercing scream echoed throughout the entire Temple. Whirling, Franz beheld the Demon King as it screamed, one giant arm reaching out to grasp at Lord Ephraim. Even as it did so, the body began to crumble away into ash, the monstrous visage of the Demon King vanishing into nothingness in a matter of seconds.
Silence flooded the chamber once more as the battered and weary warriors contemplated the most recent set of events. Franz drew in a breath. Could it really be…?
Then Lord Ephraim turned to face the others, a radiant expression on his face. With his good arm – the other was hanging limply at his side – he thrust his spear into the air and uttered a single word, "Victory!"
The room erupted into wild applause, as the giddiness and realization of what they had just accomplished – what they had just survived – began to sink in. An exultant smile on his face, Franz hurried over to Amelia.
"Amelia!"
She glanced up at him. "It's… it's over. It's really… over," she said softly.
For some reason, he found himself growing softer as well. "Yeah… it is," he replied. "The fighting's over. No more hurt. No more pain."
She grinned, a shaky smile. "I'm…" she whispered. "I'm so glad…" and then her legs gave way and she slumped to the floor.
He was crouching at her side in a heartbeat. "Amelia!"
She shook her head. "No, it's… I'm okay. Just… that dragon breath took a lot out of me. Need to… rest a bit…"
Franz chuckled weakly. "Yeah, I think we could all use a long rest."
Amelia smiled wearily at him. And then, on some unspoken signal, Franz leaned in closer, one arm reaching up to cradle the back of her forehead and to draw her closer. She didn't resist, reaching up to grasp Franz and pull him closer as well.
And as the jubilant celebrations and cheers continued all around them, the two of them embraced each other as tightly as they could. They were together. They were alive. They had succeeded.
It was over.
Chapter End
There'll be one more epilogue chapter. Sorry for taking so long. Thank you for reading, please review.
