Chapter 5: Only Human

"We have to stop him!" Celsius yelled, feeling the terror build inside her. She wouldn't let the others see her fear though, after all, it wasn't everyday she found a foe she could go all out on.

"Oh, it's far too late for that," the stranger said, walking over to the defeated spirit of flame.

"I can't believe you actually returned," Efreet said trying to get up off the ground, but all he could do was stare up at the sword pointed at his face.

"It may have taken more time than I would have liked, but I promised I'd be back, and I don't break promises," the stranger said as he shoved his sword into Efreet's body, causing the blade to glow bright red.

"Curse you Xegros," Efreet mumbled, falling unconscious. The flames around the spirit's body faded, leaving him as nothing more than a human.

"That's impossible!" Sheena yelled.

"A summon spirit turned into a human, fascinating," Raine exclaimed, amazed that everything she thought she knew about summon sprits was just changed. Efreet's new body had bright red hair, a muscular frame, and well tanned skin.

"Give Efreet's power back!" Celsius exclaimed running at Xegros.

"Someone that weak does not deserve the power of fire," Xegros said, rising his blade to block the kicked aimed at his face. The swordsman jumped back, thrilled to finally partake in his first fight in millennia.

"We have to help them!" Lloyd said drawing his swords and sprinting toward them.

Xegros looked toward the heroes rushing toward them, amused at their courage. "I'm afraid I can't have that," he said pointing his blade toward the sky and releasing a mighty stream of flames. As it fell to the earth, the fire created a barrier, the massive heat preventing the heroes from interfering. He'd deal with them soon enough, but right now he had more important things to take care of.

"What do we do?" Genis asked.

"Simple, we just break though it," Lloyd said as he tightly gripped his swords.

_

"Do you really think you can beat someone as strong as me?" Xegros asked as both he and the summon spirit charged their mana.

"Arrogant as ever I see," Celsius replied, once again running at him.

"It's not arrogance when you're this good."

She jumped into the air, firing several ice needles at him, which he dissipated with his blaze. She landed beside him, and hit him with a swallow dance attack, knocking him into the air and back several feet, but his armor protected him from any harm.

Xegros then charged at her, swinging his blade down at the spirit, but she jumped back before sprinting at him and unleashing her beast attack, knocking him to the ground. "Absolute!" she cried, calling upon the mighty ice spell to incase her foe.

After being knocked down by beast, Xegros didn't have time to dodge the prison of ice forming all around him. However, his mastery of fire made such weak ice attacks do little damage. He called upon the power of his blade causing it to spew flames wildly, melting the ice. He emerged unharmed with steam surrounding him.

"Is that the best you can do?" he asked mockingly.

"Not even close," she snapped back. It had been many ages since she last had to fight to the fullest extent of her powers. Even so, she wasn't sure if that power would be enough to take down Xegros, but she wouldn't let him see the doubt building inside her.

"Good, since I actually want a challenge." He ran at her, his sword ablaze and pointed his foe. A fury of flames shot forth, nearly consuming the spirit, but she jumped to the side just in time. The swordsman wouldn't let her get away that easily though. He followed her movements, continuously shooting fire at her, forcing her to keep dodging and preventing her from launching a counter attack. The most she could do was use her ice needles attack, but the flames easily melted the attack.

Times like this she resenting her hand to hand fighting style. If she could get close to an opponent, she could quickly incapacitate them, but from a distance her power was limited. She still had access to her magic, but with the fire all around her, it would take too long to cast anything strong enough to break through her foe's flames. Time was running out before she'd fall pray to the raging inferno, so she had to win fast. An idea came to her, a dangerous one, but if it worked, she'd get the chance she needed.

Celsius ran at Xegros instead of just dodging the fire. She tired blocking his attacks with her ice attacks, but they weren't strong enough and the scalding flames still collided into her. Even so, she kept running closer to him, ignoring the pain. Once she finally reached the swordsman, she struck the ground with her fist, causing a massive spear of ice to shoot out of the ground, incasing Xegros in its frosty embrace. Even he would have trouble breaking free from something that strong.

While he slowly tried getting out, she jumped back and began charging her most powerful spell. "O frozen world, awash in the purest white, rain down the final chill curtain to lay these wandering souls to rest… Blizzard."

Xegros broke free right as she completed the spell. White sheets of snow battled the fire for control of the air. Mighty shards of ice fell from the sky, striking Xegros several times, pounding him back into the ground. Celsius breathed in the refreshingly crisp air, felling it rejuvenate her body.

"Not bad," the magic swordsman said, actually feeling pain from that attack. He then began his own incantation. "Roar, O configuration and command all impure souls to their ashen ends…"

Celsius knew what was coming after seeing the destructive power that Efreet wielded. If he got that spell off, she wouldn't stand a chance. She ran him, thankful the incantation took so long, so she could disrupt it, but as she aimed her fist at his face, she felt a sword pierce her stomach.

She leaned over in pain, unable to remove herself form the steel. "I didn't think you could move when you were casting," she said as she coughed up blood.

"I think the heat is messing with your vision my dear; I wasn't casting at all, just luring you in." The swordsman of fire then turned his attention to his friend who had thus far remained out of the fight. "Toss me your sword."

Xylek nodded as the blue blade flew through the air into Xegros' hand. The fire swordsman shoved his friends' blade into the spirit's heart as he took his own out. A strange sensation came over the spirit, and she felt her control over the mana leaving her. The blue shade of her skin turned to white but other than that she retained most of her appearance. "Thank you so much," Xegros replied sarcastically tossing the sword back to his friend.

"That went better than expected," Xylek commented, looking to the two spirits on the ground.

"Indeed, we best be going now," he said as he put his sword away, releasing the flames that had prevented the others from interfering.

"You think we should just let them live?" the ice warrior asked.

"I'd say since they brought us back and returned our powers to us; we'll let them get away this time."

_

Right after the big fire came…

"This fire is too strong," Lloyd said after trying to slash his way through unsuccessfully.

"Leave this to me," Zelos said putting his sword away and walking up to the fire. He pulled his fist back and tried concentrating as much power as he could in it. He punched the fire with as much power as he could yelling, "Falcon Punch!" However, the attack did nothing but give him a very bad burn.

"Why made you think that would work?" Genis asked.

"I have no idea," Zelos said, "But could someone please stop this pain in my hand!?"

At this Chibi-Shadow appeared and jumped over to Zelos, biting his other hand before fading back into the shadows.

"Why does he keep doing that?!" the whiny chosen complained.

"Well, maybe that way you'd stop complaining about the other hand," Sheena said.

"But now they both hurt!"

"Keep yappen and you'll be in even more pain."

"Calm down children," Raine said as she healed Zelos' injuries while looking at the towering blaze before them. "Right now we have more important things to worry about."

"Maybe if we combine our magic together," Genis suggested.

"It's worth a shot," Raine said.

Genis used his tidal wave spell well Raine aided with Ray and Zelos with thunder blade, but the attacks did nothing to dissipate the raging flames.

"That didn't work," Zelos said.

"Maybe we could fly over it," Genis said looking up at the sky.

"It's awfully high though," Lloyd said.

"Still, Zelos should be able to get over it," the mage said.

"Fine, I'll do it." The chosen dawned his golden wings and took to the sky. As he flew higher, he noticed the air quickly got a lot colder, which was really strange, considering they were in the hottest desert in the world and near a giant fire. He just shrugged of this anomaly, at least until he saw a giant shard of ice heading toward him. He tried drawing his sword to block it, but it came to fast, and knocked him back into the ruins.

"That didn't work," he mumbled as Raine once again healed him.

"What do we do now?" Genis asked.

"Well, I'm not flying up there where random blocks of ice will attack me." The chosen got back to his feet, thankful for Raine's healing expertise.

As the group tried thinking of a solution, the fire dissipated of its own accord. The heroes looked in, noticing Efreet was still on the ground and Xylek and Xegros were still standing. The biggest surprise though was Celsius on the ground beside him, her appearance resembling that of a human.

"You think we should just let them live?" the ice warrior asked.

"I'd say since they brought us back and returned our powers to us; we'll let them get away this time."

"You think we'll let you just get away?" Lloyd yelled.

"Silly human, don't push your luck if you want to live," Xegros said as he stabbed his blade into the ground. Red runes spread out around him in a radius of at least 20 feet. A flaming dragon rose from it carrying the magic swordsmen of their backs.

Lloyd wasn't sure what to do. He knew that these two were incredibly powerful, but he couldn't just let them get away to cause even more damage. Lloyd felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Zelos beside him. "Don't worry bud, we'll figure out a way to beat them. Right now we have to take care of them," he said pointing to the wounded sprits.

Tiger: We have too much fun coming up with villains.

Xylek: Have no fear, the next chapter might clear up a few things, or confuse you even more.