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Final Fantasy VI: The Sands of Time

Book 1: The Beginning

Chapter 6 - Omens of the Past

Part 6.9 - The Ritual Completed

As the sun set for one final time on Phoenix Isle, Bismark and his friends sat by the many-armed statue, telling their stories by firelight as they waited for Silas, Jehad, and Levi to return. They had lost track of time, happily exchanging eerily similar stories about strange statues in strange places when they heard a great explosion of sound from the direction of the Nacropolis.

"What the hell was that?" Bismark shouted, rising to his feet.

"It came from the direction of the Nacropolis...," Alex said, a note of concern in his voice. "You don't think Silas was caught in that blast, do you?"

Indie jumped to his and was already gathering his things. "No time to think, we gotta make sure they're safe. C'mon! Kumiro, you stay here, understand?"

The mogri apparently did, and stayed behind as the three men ran down the path that led to the Nacropolis, hoping the worst hadn't befallen their friend. The ground was shaking everywhere now, and groans could be heard as the island began to fall apart under the force of the eruption. The three men knew their time was short, but could not leave a friend behind. They would die for Silas, and knew he would do the same for them.

The men reached the long path with the two sets of archways just in time to see a huge pillar of fire and rock shoot up from the area beyond the arches. It reached high into the sky, sending ash and dust falling like snow all over the island. This was the last gasp of the Nacropolis, consumed in one fiery gulp by the ever growing volcano.

"Damn, are we too late?" Bismark cried. "No one could have survived that, and neither will we if we don't get out of here now!"

"Wait a moment, something is coming out of the archways now." Alex said, his eyes looking straight ahead instead of at the cloud of smoke now covering the sky above. "It looks like...yes! It's Silas, and he has Levi with him. I don't see Jehad, though."

Silas and Levi were running for all they were worth, the deadly cauldron right behind them. Something else was following them as well, and soon the men realized that the Nacropolis hadn't been completely wiped out. The poison mist was now expanding without check, gushing out from the archway along with the smoke and ash from the eruption.

The mist hit the three men just as Silas and Levi reached them, and for one brief moment they felt the taint of the Dark Master touch them. The white light surrounding Silas soon grew to encompass the entire group, and they fled back towards the area with the many-armed statue without a word.

Once the men reached the central area with the statue, they stopped, not sure what to do next. None of the paths led to the ships, as far as they knew, and only Jehad knew the path back.

"Where is Jehad?" Bismark spoke up, trying to catch his breath. "What happened back there?"

Silas quickly explained the situation in as few words as possible, then remembered the pearls. If Jehad had used them to find their way here...

"Everyone calm down, I am going to try and find the path back to the ships." Silas said as calmly as he could, the smoke and poison now filling the area, visibly wilting all the once-glorious life that had inhabited the island.

Try as he might, he could not get the pearls to do any more than shed their light around him and his companions. He tried speaking in the language of the Order, then in the language of the natives from the Island of the Moon, but the pearls remained as they were. He was no priest, and he did not know how to pray to the Holy Master. Only Jehad knew the words that could have saved them all, and he was gone.

"I'm sorry everyone, but it looks like we've gone as far as we can. If only Jehad hadn't thrown his life away..." Silas bit back the anger and sadness at losing the gentle priest, knowing there was nothing to do now but leave their fates in the hands of higher powers.

"Kupo! Kupopo...po! Ku! Ku!"

"What the devil is that?" Levi shouted over the cacophony of noise now surrounding them as island died.

Indie's face lit up at the sounds of his little friend, and exclaimed, "Kumiro! Are you saying you know how to get out of here? You know where the rest of our people are? But how?"

The mogri simply waved his hands and pulled at Indie's pant leg, urging them towards the now browning undergrowth.

"Are we really going to follow this thing right into that poisoned forest?" Levi said, a rare look of fear on his face as remembered his harrowing experience with the purple mist.

"My friend here knows this forest better than any of us do, and I get the feeling he knows where our ships are at." Indie said. "I say we trust him."

"I agree," Silas spoke up. "We don't have time to try anything else. Unless someone's got a better suggestion, I say we follow this little creature. If Indie trusts it, so do I."

"So do I," Alex said.

"Same here," Bismark agreed.

"Fine," Levi muttered. "You're all crazy, but we're dead anyways, so I might as well see what this beast can do."

Kumiro didn't even let Levi finish his grumbling before it had dragged Indie through the brush, with the others right behind him. With the mogri deftly avoiding branches and vines, it hopped ahead of the others, impatiently waving at them as they chopped their way in the direction it led. The forest was all but dead now, and they had little trouble making a path throw the feeble, blackening foliage. The scientist felt a pang of sadness and outrage that such a wondrous place should be destroyed so mercilessly, but such was the power of nature. It could create unparalleled beauty, and could take it away with equal magnificence.

Soon the dead forest thinned out, and the men found themselves back in the harbor, the poison mist now spreading even this far. Soon the entire island would be covered in it, and what then? Would it cover the world like in the legends? Right now the only though on the men's minds was getting away from this disaster. The world could wait.

All three ships were still there, but the Order ship was already preparing to leave. Silas wondered if the men on board knew that Jehad would not be coming back. He had a few words for them if he could make it out of here alive.

Bismark began yelling orders to his patiently waiting crew as soon as he hit the shoreline, not wasting any time with explanations. He leapt onto the Maiden and waved the rest of the group on board. Kumiro hesitated at the front of the ship as the others boarded, not sure what it was or where it was going.

"Don't worry, little friend," Indie said, and reached his hand out from the ship's deck. The mogri took one last look at his home, his pom-pom drooping, then fluttered up to Indie's hand and joined the rest of the men on the deck of the ship.

Levi split off from the group without a word and manned his own ship, barking out harsh words to his miserable-looking and panic-stricken crew. They immediately got to work steering the ship out of the harbor. Even now Levi's influence on his crew was more fearsome than the cataclysm that was happening to the island.

Another terrific explosion rocked the island, and the three ships were knocked about as they struggled to steer out of the harbor. Huge cracks were creeping out of the forest now, and the lava from the volcano's crater could be seen glowing through the trees, burning everything up as it covered the island.

Levi's ship was the first ship to leave the harbor, followed quickly by the Order ship. Bismark's ship was the last, and being the only ship without a motor, it was having trouble getting out of the harbor in time.

"We'll never make it out of here before the island is destroyed!" Bismark shouted over the roar of the eruption. "Indie, I don't suppose the critter of yours has another trick up its sleeve?"

Indie looked at his little companion, but it looked as terrified as the rest of them, and was not offering any miracle solutions.

Silas tried to get the pearls to work again, hoping he might randomly trigger their powers, but he was pushing his limited vocabulary of the strange language to its limits, and time was almost out.

Bismark could see the looks on his friends faces, and knew there was nothing left to do but grimly wait and see what happened. He looked at the image of the Maiden on his ship's prow, and remembered how the statue, now probably destroyed, bore the same gentle look. He was not a praying man, but he now looked at the trembling waters around the ship and silently hoped Elia would come and save them from this disaster, like legends say she was wont to do in times of need.

"Elia, if you hear my voice, we need you now, more than ever."

These words were not spoken by Bismark, but by Silas, who had a strange look on his face as he gazed into the pearls.

"Silas, what are you..."

Bismark's voice was cut off as the aura of light that had continued to surround Silas grew to surround the entire ship. With a shudder the ship began to move away from the crumbling island interior. and flowed with growing speed through the chasm that had allowed them entrance to the island. It never rocked or swayed, and moved perfectly forward through the chasm, steadier than if Bismark had steered her himself.

"Silas...what are you doing?" Bismark asked incredulously.

"I'm not sure," Silas said with effort, the pearls using his own life to power the ship away from the island. "I couldn't think of anything to say in the proper language, so I just spoke them normally. I'm not sure how it worked, but I guess some gods aren't as picky as others."

He couldn't help but laugh at the idea, and others smiled with relief as the ship sped away from the island, now cloaked in flames, smoke, and poison and slowly shrinking under the water.

"I don't think the island will be rising from these ashes," Alex spoke up unexpectedly. "Phoenix Island has appeared for the last time, I'm afraid. A catastrophic eruption like this will utterly destroy the land, and break it to a thousand pieces. Nothing could save it now."

True to Alex's assessment, the island gave out great cries of pain as it split in half, then into four pieces, then more. Soon all that could be seen was a great plume of fire lighting up the night sky. Smoke and ash filled the sky, and the poison mist could also be seen, slowly oozing out from the smoke. As the Maiden put a safe distance between it and the dying island, the glow of the flames continued to rise from the ocean, long after the island had completely sunk from view.

The other two ships could be seen now, speeding away from the island towards Bariki, the closest safe port to recover from the disaster. The Maiden followed them, still working under the power of Silas's own strength. But how long could he support this miracle?

Soon the ships had arrived in Bariki, looking like they come straight from the bowels of hell. All three ships were covered in black soot, and the men on the Maiden spared no time leaping into the blessedly calm waters to wash themselves off.

As the crew of the Order's ship disembarked a bit more formally, Silas was waiting for them, a look of intense anger on his face.

"So! What do you have to say for yourselves? You knew right from the start that Jehad was going to his death, and you allowed it!"

The Order members said nothing, but looked at each other with heads lowered in shame. One of them managed to speak up after a moment, feeling something should be said.

"Our orders were to deliver the chosen priest and the Offering to the island, and wait to make sure the ceremony was a success." Here he stopped, a look of dread on his face. When he continued, he spoke with a tremble in his voice. "But we never saw the signs that the Elder told us to expect. We waited as long as we felt we could, but when the island became unsafe, we knew we must flee. We are sorry for deceiving you, but this is the way it has been done for thousands of years. All of us have been sworn to absolute secrecy for the rest of our lives, and now we must ask you to keep the secret as well."

Silas was enraged now, and did not spare any of the men of the Order. "Secret! You cowards don't have to worry about that anymore. The island was destroyed, and the ritual was a failure! Jehad died for nothing, no thanks to you! You're lucky I don't drown each and every one of you! Get out my sight!"

Silas stormed off, leaving the stunned Order members standing on the sand in front of their ship. They were not just stunned at Silas's temper, but at the words he had spoke. If the ritual really had been a failure, then what would happen now? The ritual had been completed successfully for as far back as recorded history allowed, and no one knew just what great evil now would surface because of their failure. Each and every Order member felt the weight of their failure on their souls, and wondered if this is what the original Order members felt as they fled their homeland so many centuries ago.

Silas had recovered himself after his outburst, and was now fuming quietly at the closest thing Bariki had to a bar. There were many other crew members from all three ships here now, enjoying a cold drink after their nightmarish journey. Spirits were high and the men felt more alive now than they had ever been.

Levi was happily laughing to himself in a corner of the bar, waving the scroll he had found in the face of someone from the Order's ship. He would enjoy haggling with them for as high a price as possible. But this man was nobody, and would not even try and guess what the scroll might be worth. He said only the High Elder could judge its worth, and that even then the Order was not rich, and could not offer the price he was asking for it. Levi would see about that. He stuffed the scroll back into his coat and went to sit by himself and enjoy a well earned drink.

Silas looked over at Levi, wondering what it was he was waving around. The man had been obsessed with finding treasure there, and it looked like he got his wish. Good for him, Silas thought unhappily. At least somebody got something out of this journey, even if it was a wretch like Levi.

Silas was miserable, and kept looking down at the pearls, wondering if there was anything more he could have done to save Jehad. The man had seemed so calm...could he really have just given up like that? And if he did offer himself, then why had the ritual failed? Silas struggled for answers, but none came. These matters were beyond his field of expertise, indeed beyond anything he had ever experienced, and he just sighed and tried to drink away his feelings.

Slowly the men emptied from the bar and went back to their ships to sleep for night. Silas was the last to leave, helped by Bismark and Alex. He was far too drunk to care about anything now, and his friends left him in his quarters to the sleep he surely needed.

The next day brought a new terror the crew and Barikian people. As the Order members had feared, the poison mist had kept spreading from the island, and a terrified group of fisherman returned from the days work early shouting about a cloud of death that had been seen moving towards the island.

The entire island was now in an uproar, fearing that these outsiders had finally managed to destroy their peaceful way of life. They demanded that the scientists solve this problem with their technology, but the Maiden's crew was as helpless as they were. The Order's crew said the poison cloud was punishment from their god for failing to complete the ritual, and this only caused the islanders to hate the foreigners even more.

Levi had attempted to sneak off at the first word of the cloud's appearance, but Silas caught him and flew into a rage that he himself could not explain. This man had been nothing but the devil himself since they first met him, and Silas was not going to let him get away with it this time.

"Levi! You are going to abandon these people and us just like you abandoned Jehad! You are a miserable coward, and I cannot let you leave here without helping us evacuate. We need all three ships to carry off everyone to safety."

Levi was unfazed, and just laughed his half-mad laugh. "And who are you to order me? I do as I please, and this island has worn out its welcome for me. I am leaving, and I'm not taking a single one of these rats with me."

"No!" Silas yelled, running after the man as he walked towards his ship. "You will not leave this island!"

Silas caught up to Levi and spun him around, grabbing at his coat like a wild animal. Levi was shocked at the man's audacity, and struggled to free himself. But Silas was like a demon, and would not let go. He grabbed at Levi and tried to pull him back to the shore where the Bismark and the others, and well as most of the island watched in stunned silence.

"Let. Go. Of. Me!" Levi rasped, trying in vain to shove this crazy man off him. As the two men fought, the scroll slipped from Levi's coat and landed on the sand. Silas saw it and knew in an instant he had found a weak point. He quickly bent down and snatched the scroll before Levi could realize what had happened.

"Hah!" Silas exclaimed triumphantly, letting go of Levi so abruptly that the other man fell backwards onto the beach in a puff of sand. "Now we'll see if you'll help me. You seemed to think this scroll worth something, yes? Well you won't get it back until everyone on this island is safe and sound, do you hear me? It's mine now!"

Silas had hit Levi's weak spot alright. That scroll was his, and he would not let anyone take it from him. Levi stormed up to Silas to give him the fight of his life, but Silas was already running back to the beach, where the rest of the island watched expectantly.

Levi ran up to the crowd and demanded they stop that thief. But no one listened to him. They had heard the argument, and knew the measure of this man well enough. They were all on Silas's side, and no one lifted a finger to stop him as he rejoined his friends. They did stop Levi, however, and created a human wall to prevent him from reaching the men of the Maiden. Levi let out a howl of frustration and stormed back to his ship, defeated for the moment.

"Well that was a fine piece of work, Silas," Indie said once everyone was back on the Maiden, chuckling despite himself. "A rather unorthodox method of getting help, but I guess when dealing with rats you have to think like a rat."

Bismark and Alex agreed. "I'm just glad that piece of scum finally got some comeuppance," Bismark said with a grim smile on his face.

"I did what I had to do," Silas said gruffly. "Levi has gotten away with far too much on this voyage, and this was the last straw."

"Oh no, I'm not complaining." Indie said. "It worked, and now we've got to hurry and get these people out of here. You don't think you could use that little lightshow of yours to protect us again?"

"I don't know," Silas said uncertainly. "There were four pearls glowing on this necklace before, and now the fourth one is very dim, almost as dark as the others. I think the more you use it, the more the lights on these pearls fade. I used a lot a lot of power doing what I did, and I don't know if the necklace would be enough to save everyone on the island. Besides, it uses my own life force to activate it, and I don't know if I could survive something of that magnitude."

The group was stunned. "It's feeding off of you?" Indie said, mortified. "Why didn't you tell us? We can't have you sacrificing yourself like Jehad did. There has to be another way."

"What about that scroll Levi was so keen on? What's it got to do with this?" Alex said.

"Hm, I honestly hadn't even thought of it," Silas replied. "I guess it is worth looking at, right?"

Silas took the scroll from out of his pocket and the four looked at it. At first, they couldn't make heads or tales of the writing, but as soon as the scroll was completely unfurled, a voice thundered in the head from across time and space, bringing all four men to their knees.

"When the Balance of Eight meets its end beyond Time

The Three will be taken and paid in full for their Crime.

The Sands of Time shall never be stilled,

The Force that was drained must be refilled.

In the Mouth of Fire a fated Pact will be made,

The Vengeful Master will come to the one called Sade.

In the Desert of Death where life dares not bloom,

The Child of the Sands will meet his Doom.

Before the Eye of the storm that does not sleep,

The Elder of the Seas will sink into the Deep.

The Path of the Three will converge at the Source,

Where the Vessels of Fate will open the Door.

A Great Power will be bestowed to the chosen few,

And Chaos shall reign until the Balance is renewed.

Time will pass and the Great War for Power will rage,

Only the Splitting of Power will save the world for an age.

But The River of Time has one final Bend,

Upon the backs of the Three the world will End.

Hope cannot die and Promises may keep,

The Dreaming Awake shall return to their Sleep."

The four men cringed in pain as the voice of God echoed through every recess of their mortal minds. It looked like they were being electrocuted as they fell to the deck in shock. No sound came from their lips, but their faces contorted in horror as the minds were bent to the breaking point.

Crew members that had witnessed the event quickly rushed to their sides and tried to help the men. One of them had the foresight to take the scroll and throw it to the other side of the ship. As soon as the scroll was free from their clenched fists, the men began to recover, a look of disbelief on their faces. Silas was the first to recover and struggled to speak.

"W-what...was that? It sounded like...like the voice from before. Only much stronger...much purer. Vengeful Master...I wonder if that is the same as the Vengeful One the voice mentioned before?"

Alex had now recovered enough from the experience to speak.

"I don't know what that was, but it didn't sound good. I have never felt anything like that before, but somehow, I know it is the absolute truth. I don't even doubt it one bit, whatever it all means."

"Everyone, I know what we have to do," Silas said once all of them had recovered. "When I heard that voice, I saw something else too. We need to go back to the island. Now."

Bismark eyes widened with surprise. "Go back? To where? The island sank, remember? It's gone."

"No," Silas continued. "The island is gone, but the evil it contained is still there. The poison cloud. We have to go back to the source to stop it. And only I can do it. I have to finish what Jehad started. It has to be me now."

The others were not happy at this. "You're crazy," Alex said heatedly. "You saw what happened to Jehad, and now you want to go and do exactly what he did. If it didn't work when Jehad tried, what makes you think it will work now?"

"I just know," Silas said calmly. He had made up his mind. "We have to leave now. We have to sail to where the island was and complete the ritual. The shrine was unimportant. It's the location that matters. The Nacre will guide me there, and show me what to do."

"You're sounding just like Jehad did," Bismark said tiredly. "I've had just about enough of this magic business for one lifetime. But...," Bismark looked right at Silas, and saw the look in his eyes and knew. "I trust you Silas. If you say we have to go, then I'll raise anchors right now and we'll end this. Together."

"Right," Indie chimed in. The others agreed too, and soon the ship was on its way once more to the Phoenix Island.

But the Maiden of the Sea had one extra crew member on this voyage. While the events of the scroll played out on deck, Levi had snuck back off his ship and boarded the Maiden. He would have what was is, and he would have his revenge on them for making him look the fool. He would pay those islanders back as well, and had already given the inhuman orders to his swarthy crew. No one would escape the wrath of Captain Jonah Levi on this day.