Final Fantasy XIII: Cursed Past
Chapter 35 of my Final Fantasy XIII story, the big battle against Barthandelus, enjoy.
Reviews
jlbean: Yeah, it's not gonna be easy, thanks, glad you are enjoying it :)
TheWarrior12: Well the wait is over, hope you enjoy it, thanks, I did my best.
Miyaaa: Thanks, glad you are enjoying it, here we go, the big fight :)
Beloved Nightmare Union: Thanks, glad you are enjoying it, those parts were left out deliberately because of how I intend to use and reveal them in this chapter, we actually are, I'm pretty sure Omega will, not sure about Jihl.
Now onto the story.
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII belongs to Square Enix.
Chapter 35: Final Battle
The group and their Eidolons charged immediately but Barthandelus raised an Enchanted Veil to protect himself and then spoke.
"Mystic Aura, awaken!" The Mystic Aura flowed from his head and into the devices on either side of his head.
Suddenly they slid back and they realized there were white female head shaped adornments within the devices. Finally Barthandelus sent energy waves into the adornments, a form of Magic Amplification. They skidded to a stop, having to block and dodge as the four adornments began casting spells repeatedly, one after the other, of varying strength. The two on the right casting fire and thunder spells, the two on the left casting water and blizzard spells. To add to the difficulty Barthandelus himself was casting Ruinga spells at them, soon they were burned, shocked, soaked, cut with ice shards and blasted off their feet several times, it was all they could do to heal themselves. Luckily the Eidolon's were able to shrug the spells off and were able to dart in close and attack. The Enchanted Veil meant Barthandelus was impervious to harm, but his adornments were vulnerable and the Eidolon's focused on them, damaging them.
"Guys, that's it," Hope pointed out, having analyzed the battle as best as he could, "We need to take those things out, their giving him more power."
"Great, the question is, how," Sazh replied, Lightning however had the answer, "Long range attacks, get ready.
The others nodded and Vanille charged up a spell. Hope prepared to cast magic too but also readied his boomerang. Lightning switched to gun mode and Sazh readied his pistols. Serah joined them, using her weapons bow function and they prepared to aid their Eidolons.
Suddenly Barthandelus' face plate opened up.
"Face my wrath!" He bellowed as he launched a wave of energy from behind the face plate which blasted the Eidolons, knocking them backwards. Immediately Lightning and her friends attacked viciously with their long range attacks. With the adornments damaged the Eidolons recovered and Odin charged forwards and used his swords on the two left adornments while Brynhildr went for one of the right ones, the other was attacked by Bahamut. The damage being too great the adornments were destroyed and the Enchanted Veil disappeared as the group recovered, healed and regrouped in the centre of the rooms with their healed Eidolons.
"Accursed fools; you will face my wrath for impeding my plans!" He bellowed, "Face a Baptism in Ruin."
With that countless ruin spells were launched at them, they dodged as many as they could but they were struck several times and hit the ground injured. Barthandelus began to charge his ultimate attack, Destrudo. In response the Eidolons acted to defend their masters. With Odin in the lead they charged and all delivered power devastating blows to Barthandelus that cut deep into his armour. Vanille and Hope healed themselves and the party and once again regrouped as Barthandelus writhed in agony.
Barthandelus roared in pain and suddenly broke into laughter.
"Fools, you think this is over, I have only just begun," He announced darkly before calling out, "Menrva!"
In response a light grey owl like mechanical rukh flew down to him.
"We can no longer be separate; I need to awaken my greater powers."
The rukh flew down and landed on his head, both were engulfed in white light and when it cleared Barthandelus had transformed. He had grown to a slightly larger size and was now white in colour with gold plates, a new white and gold face plate and several unusual markings on his body; he also possessed tear shaped groves along his shoulder joints, his claws, although white, remained from his first form however and the feeling of raw power from his was greater than ever.
"Now, this is where you die!" He bellowed as the battle continued.
He began attacking with several laser blasts. They dodged the attacks and, in conjunction with their Eidolons they leapt in and attacked him, he roared and glowed before suddenly attacking with several debilitating spells firing more lasers. Despite their continued attacks, Barthandelus continued to attack with more dangerous laser blasts and more debilitating spells but they kept on their toes and dodged. The Eidolons were able to block or shrug off the blows before attacking. Suddenly he sent out energy waves and the group felt the strengthening spells they had cast on themselves weakening before fading completely. His face plate opened again and he launched a large, devastatingly powerful beam attack, stronger than the last one. The blast struck the party head on and sent them flying across the room where they landed hard, heavily injured. The Eidolons were blasted back sunk to their knees.
Barthandelus laughed at his apparent victory.
"How pathetic, so much for your great powers," He gloated, "Even with the Eidolon's you cannot stop me, how foolish, now your corpses shall be the first in the Great Cleansing brought on by Orphan's great judgement."
"Don't count us out yet."
Barthandelus froze, the one who spoke out wasn't Lightning as he had expected, it was the one he least expected, Hope. The boy struggled to his feet and, breathing heavily, glared at Barthandelus.
"How, this is impossible, you are trying my patience boy, why don't you just roll over and die?"
Hope shook his head, "Because, no matter how great your power, you can never defeat us, we all fight together, we're friends," He smiled at Lightning who had lifted her head to stare at him in amazement, "More than that, we are bound together, and unlike you...We have something worth fighting for!"
Encouraged by Hope's words the others got to their feet, Hope cast the strongest curative magic he could, Vanille backed him up and the group was healthy again. They also healed their Eidolons and stepped forwards, Barthandelus growled.
"Something worth fighting for, what foolishness," He spat, "What could be more important than my unlimited power."
Lightning smirked, "I'll tell you, we don't just fight for each other, but for everyone, on Cocoon, on Pulse, all the innocent that you plan to persecute. We fight to protect them, no matter what the cost!"
With that they leapt into action as the Eidolons took on their Gestalt Forms. Hecatoncheir took on the form of a large bipedal tank like machine with large Gatling guns. Ifrit assumed a quadruped stance, flames came from his horns and he developed flamethrower like protrusions from his shoulders. Leviathan developed scaly wings with several spikes protruding from his body. Brynhildr assumed the shape of a sports car; the Shiva Sisters took the form of a motorbike. Bahamut grew large wings and took to the air. Alexander became a weapon laden fortress and Odin took on a horse like form, the group all mounted their Eidolons and, Lightning, wielding Odin's swords called out.
"Ready!"
They prepared to launch a final assault as Barthandelus took on his third ultimate form.
Barthandelus' final form was still white and gold but his armour looked thicker, he once again had a new face plate but his shoulder plates had become four tiered wing like protrusions, several symbols covered his body and his power was at its peak. He immediately attacked with the laser blasts but the group charged and continued to attack, using their Eidolon's abilities to damage and dent his armour. He roared in anger after almost ten minutes of this.
"Take this, Ultima!" He bellowed launching the most powerful attack spell.
"Brace yourself guys," Fang called out, but Hope got an idea, "Guys, get behind Alexander."
They did so and Hope took cover behind Alexander's head. Being a fortress Alexander took the Ultima blast without even flinching and the group renewed their attack. Finally they decided to finish it, using their strongest attacks. Ifrit's Hellfire, Levianthan's Tidal Wave, Hecatoncheir's Gaian Salvo, Alexander's Divine Judgement, Bahamut's Mega Flare, Brynhildr's Muspell Flame, The Shiva Sister's Diamond Dust and finally, Odin's Zantetsuken.
"The storm is here!" Lighting yelled as the combined force of the attacks pummelled Barthandelus.
Barthandelus was heavily damaged; his armour was cracked, broken and fragmented in places. He gave a loud roar and then opened his face plate.
"Fools, I will crush you now." He bellowed.
He launched the most devastating and powerful beam attack yet. The group were knocked off their Eidolons who were forced back to their normal forms. Barthandelus began to rise up into the air.
"Now, watch as Orphan and I become one and obliterate all you worthless fools at once"!
He continued to rise as the Eidolons all tried to attack but they were heavily injured and began to disappear, until only Odin was left. The others launched spells and used long range weaponry but all they did was knock some armour off. Barthandelus was now level with Orphan and they connected and began to glow as the power surged through them both.
"Now, the Great Cleansing shall begin!"
Lightning however noticed that, the armour that had been knocked off had revealed Barthandelus' core. She just had to hit it, suddenly she got an idea, she looked over at Odin and nodded, Odin stood up, Lightning quickly stood up and readied her weapon and then nodded at Odin.
"Do it!"
Odin grabbed Lightning's hand and swung around before throwing her up into the air towards Barthandelus, mere seconds before he too faded away. Lightning flew through the air and soon raised her blade. Before Barthandelus could gloat again, Lightning struck out and drove her Blazefire Sabre through the core with devastating finality.
She pulled her blade out and fell back, landing on her feet, staggering slightly before recovering. Barthandelus was roaring in agony and as they watched he and Orphan exploded in a blast of light which, after fading reduced to nothingness, obliterating the last of the Fal'Cie. The group all doubled over to catch their breath, just then the doors opened.
"Excellent, well done, PSICOM is finished," It was Caius, "Without Barthandelus' magic to sustain them they all perished."
They all breathed a sigh of relief knowing that the battle was finally over. Lightning walked over to Caius, she stopped in front of him.
"You're leaving again, aren't you?" She asked sadly.
Caius gave a sad smile, "You know where I am this time, I'm returning to Pulse. I'm better off there; I'm just a relic of a war people would rather forget."
Lightning nodded sadly, Caius smiled, "You don't need me anymore Lightning, you have them." He indicated the group that was watching them.
"Most importantly, you have Hope," He added, Lightning looked over her shoulder at him and smiled before turning back to Caius, "Yeah; I guess you're right, just...answer your phone this time."
Caius laughed; Lightning smiled but then was hit with a wave of dizziness and exhaustion, brought on by her constant exertions in the fight. The dizziness got too strong and she fell forwards, the last things she remembered was Hope calling her name, panicked and Caius catching her before she blacked out.
End of chapter, We have reached the end of the Action Arc, next up we move on to the final arc, the Peace Returning Arc, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.