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Final Fantasy VI: The Sands of Time

Book 1: The Beginning

Chapter 7 - Confluence

Part 7.7 - To the Source

"Levi is here."

Sade said this to no one in particular as he walked calmly and surely along the ancient stone-paved path through the jungle. Dehr and Cruz followed him, but looked like mice being lead by a cat. They were very much out of their element here in the wilds.

"Huff...how..how could you possibly know that?" Cruz panted miserably from the rear as he struggled to keep up with the others. His portly body and short legs were not meant for expeditions like this, and he had been whining and grumbling like a child since entering the forest.

Sade said nothing, but kept walking forward at his brisk, determined pace.

"Well? Answer me, already!" Cruz shouted in frustration. He was sweating all over, the bugs were biting every inch of him, and he kept hearing strange noises from every dark place alongside the path. He was obviously nearing his breaking point, but neither Dehr nor Sade showed him any pity.

Sade remained silent a moment longer, and just when Cruz was about to explode he smiled and spoke as if he only just now had heard Cruz's initial question.

"I feel it, here," he said as he pointed to his chest. "The voice of the Goddess sings of destruction and fear, and I hear her song now like a clarion in my mind. It is such beautiful music, can't you feel it?"

"All I hear is the animals in the forest howling and my own breathing. I think I'm dying. Can't we stop and wait for the others to catch up?" Cruz's voice was a whine now, and was beginning to grate on Sade's nerves.

"Be quiet and keep moving," Sade snapped. "The closer we get to the Source, the harder it will be for the power of the Three to be contained. I do not trust Dune to behave, and I trust Levi not at all."

Sade stopped abruptly and turned his head to look at the mewling figure of Cruz behind him. Cruz winced at his hard gaze. "You are free to stop and wait for Dune if you like. You can even wait for Levi for all I care. I'm sure he'd be happy to have you at his side." Sade smiled his most sadistic smile and started walking again.

Cruz paled at the mention of Jonah Levi. The man was by all accounts dead and drowned half a world away, but Sade claimed he was right behind them. Suddenly Cruz renewed his efforts to keep up with the others. There were things far more frightening than animal noises, bugs, and heat in the world. Cruz was beginning to wonder why he had ever followed these two to the ends of the earth.

Dehr remained silent throughout Sade's and Cruz's exchange, seemingly unaffected by her surroundings. Inside, though, she was just as frightened as Cruz, and was wondering herself just what had driven her this far in her quest for power. Perhaps this power Sade promised wasn't something she really wanted after all.

It was too late now, though. Far too late. Sade's almost hypnotic personality had dragged both her and Cruz here, and she felt with growing certainty that he was leading them to their own destruction, like lambs to an altar.

The three continued down the road, which was now ascending sharply upwards as it neared the great mountain range on the other side of the island.

A short distance behind Sade's group, Dune's group was making their own way down the path. The atmosphere surrounding this group was not nearly as oppressive as Sade's, and the unavoidable sense of foreboding both groups felt mingled with wonder here. These were weary men out to stop a great evil if they could, but they were also scientists exploring unknown territory.

"This path is amazing, isn't it Dune?" Alex remarked as they walked. His face had been turned downward since they started on the path.

"Yes, it is," Dune said back, also looking downward as often as he could. "The stone blocks are obviously thousands of years old, yet there is no sign of any plant growth on them at all. It's as if the plants instinctively know not to grow here."

"No signs of any animals frequenting the path, either," Indie spoke up from the back.

"Or people, 'cept for us," Bismark finished.

"Yes," Alex continued, thinking aloud. "What's even more amazing is that this path was not here when I last visited this island. Yet, it must have been. As you said, Dune, these stone blocks were plainly carved thousands of years ago from the look of them."

"By who, though?" Dune asked Alex, hoping he knew some of his father's research here.

"Not by the people we saw on the beach, that's for sure. This workmanship, though...it looks so familiar..." Alex stopped walking as if struck, and the others stopped and looked at him.

"What's wrong?" Bismark asked.

"I know where I've seen stone work like this before, and so do you Mobius, and you too, Indie."

"What?" Bismark started, but he fell silent and looked at Alex, his thoughts coming into line with Alex's in a burst of memory. Indie's face showed that he, too, had remembered.

"Phoenix Isle..." all three of the old men said quietly.

"It must be..."

"So these people..."

"Silas was right, but he never knew the source until..." Alex finished.

"My father?" Dune spoke up, feeling lost. "What did my father know?"

Indie and Bismark fell silent, and let Alex speak.

Alex collected his thoughts for a moment, putting as many pieces together as he could.

"As I told you before, Dune, your father studied this island's people extensively. He never saw this path either, but he knew the people currently living here must have come from somewhere else originally, and that the original inhabitants of the island were long extinct. He could tell that the current people had migrated here about two thousand years ago, but the original civilization was far older, perhaps as old as five thousand years. He suspected they were far more advanced than the current inhabitants, but couldn't guess where these new people had come from, or what had happened to the original people."

"But you think you know?" Dune asked, his curiosity growing.

"I think I know more now than I did then, thanks to my travels to Phoenix Isle thirty years ago. These people, they are refugees from the Phoenician Empire. When their island home was destroyed two thousand years ago, some of the survivors made their way here, and some..."

"...And some of them made it to Narsille!" Dune finished excitedly. That was why he recognized their language. It wasn't exactly the same as ancient Narsillian, but it was close. Close enough that both languages had come from the same source - ancient Phoenician.

"You are your father's son," Alex said bemusedly. "You're right, of course. The Order of the Pearl survived the destruction of their homeland, and made its way to Narsille, where it mingled with our land's original inhabitants and prospered. The people here, however, reverted to a primitive culture in the absence of any civilization to help them. Which means that the people who lived here before the Phoenicians came were probably already gone..." Alex became silent as he thought about this mystery.

"So my father never knew who the original people were?" Dune asked as Alex thought silently.

"No, but he had his theories," Alex said, trying to put the pieces together. There was a great mystery here, and he felt they were on the verge of solving it.

Dune opened his mouth to prod Alex further, but he shut it with a snap and stood stock still, as if struck by lightning. His hair stood on end and his eyes went wide. He turned around sharply and looked back behind them with a look of terror on his face.

The others were shaken from their pleasant thoughts about the island's history at once. Something had happened, but only Dune seemed to have sensed anything.

"What is it, Dune?" Bismark asked.

"Don't you feel it?" Dune said through clenched jaws, as if holding back a scream. "It's...it's Levi."

"What?" all three men said in unison.

"He's here. Behind us. I can feel him. I can hear him in my mind. He's laughing..." Dune's voice trailed off as if he were falling into a trance. He almost began to walk back towards the beach while he spoke, but Bismark grabbed hold of him and shook him, hard.

"Snap out of it! Levi's dead, Dune!"

"No..." Dune murmured, still in a daze, struggling against Bismark. "He's here...he's laughing...and SHE'S singing..."

"Dune!"

Bismark slapped Dune across the face, and the young man's eyes snapped back into focus. The look of utter terror was still in them, though.

"Captain! Levi is here! I know it sounds impossible, but you have to trust me. I feel him, here." Dune clutched the pocket where the crystal slept. It let out a soft pulse of coldness at Dune's touch.

The others looked at each other worriedly. Was it true? Dune's uncanny powers of detection when using the crystal had been demonstrated before. But this was different. Levi had no business being here, or anywhere else among the living of the world.

"Dune, what are you saying?" Indie asked slowly.

"Levi survived, and he has the third crystal." Dune explained, as best he could. "That must be what I'm feeling. He's here for the same reason we are. Sade, myself, Levi...we are being drawn here, all of us."

"But why, and by who?" Alex asked, mystified.

"I don't know...but it's powerful. Now that Levi's here, I feel it's power growing. I can feel Sade, and I can feel Levi. The crystals are responding to each other, I think." Dune began to slowly walk forward again as he spoke, away from the beach.

"It's up there..." Dune spoke as he walked forward. He pointed down the path and up into the air, straight through the trees. Nothing could be seen through the thick canopy, but they all knew at what he must be pointing. The highest peak of the great mountain range they had seen from the ship.

"The Source is up there," Dune continued.

"Source? Source of what?"

Dune seemed to come to himself again for a moment. "I don't know. I can hear it in my mind, calling out to me. The Source. That's all I know."

"This is getting a little creepy for me," Bismark said as nonchalantly as he could, but there was fear in his face now.

"Well, it seems we're in a bit of a tough spot," Indie said. "We've got Sade ahead of us, and if Dune is right, Levi behind us."

"So what do we do?" Alex asked.

"We keep moving." Dune said with conviction. "We came here to stop whatever it is Sade's planning if we can, right?"

"Right." Bismark agreed. "We keep moving. Even if that dog Levi is back there, we've got to keep going forward, wherever this road leads. I'm getting a bad feeling about this whole mess, but we came here for a reason, and I'm sticking to it."

"You're right, of course," Indie said with a smile.

"Let's go," Alex finished.

The four men steeled themselves and started moving forward with a new determination. There was no going back now. They no longer speculated about the mysteries of the island around them as they walked. With the thought of Levi coming back to haunt them once again, any desire for small talk faded away.

Soon, they reached the point where the path began its ascent upwards into the mountains. The forests gradually receded, and the smell of cold mountain air wafted downwards into their noses. The stone path continued upwards, cleaving a path straight up into the mountains like a great stairway to the heavens.

Once the forest was beneath them, the path began to curve around the mountain side. A new smell greeted their noses as they veered away from the forest line. It was the salty smell of the ocean. The roar of rushing water filled their ears as the wall of the mountain side curved away from them and the open sky came into view. They had traveled around the mountains and were now on the opposite side of the island, facing the ocean.

"Amazing..." Alex couldn't help but say as he peered downwards.

They were far higher up than they would have guessed. The stone road followed the curve of the mountain range perilously close to the cliff's edge, and the men could easily look out at the great bay formed by the mountain range's crescent-shaped path of destruction. A fall from this height would mean instant death in the raging waters below.

The waterfalls they had seen from the ship were all around them now, so loud they were almost painful. Some spouts broke free from the cliff wall below them, some far above. Somehow the road remained free of their violent courses, and the four men moved onward in careful awe as great arcs of water shot over them harmlessly and fell into the waters below. Like the plants and animals, it was as if the very water knew not to disturb this ancient road.

As the men climbed higher, the air grew thinner and the temperature began to drop. Where it was hot and humid in the jungle below, it was close to freezing now. There was no sign of life at this height. The shrubs and grasses that had replaced the trees had since faded, and no birds flew at this height. And yet the road wound onward and upward, never ceasing in its ascent towards the highest of the peaks.

"How much further do you think this road goes, Dune?" Bismark asked cautiously, wondering what Dune could sense.

"Not much longer now, Captain. Sade's still climbing ahead of us, and Levi is still behind us. The Source is close now, but we must climb higher."

"I'm getting too old for this," Bismark grunted, but he kept moving forward, his one leg beginning to ache at the unusual strain he had been putting on it. He was not used to this much walking, and he wasn't sure how much more walking he could bear. But he said nothing of this, and kept up with the others as surely as if he had two working legs.

The road now rose through a thick mist that could only be the clouds they had seen far below. It was now bone-chillingly cold, and the men knew if they didn't reach the end of this road soon, they would freeze to death. How anyone had managed to build a road like this so high up was beyond any of them. Even with the best technology Narsille had to offer, a road like this would have been impossible to construct in these conditions. And yet a civilization from five thousand years ago had done it.

"Dune, slow down...we can't keep up anymore," Indie said wearily. The freezing temperatures were taking their toll on the old men now, but Dune seemed unaffected.

"Sorry," Dune said, and made a conscious effort to slow his pace. "For some reason, I don't feel the cold at all. I think...I think it's because of the crystal. It seems to feed off the cold, and counter any temperature, hot or cold. It was the same under Narsille. I was able to travel across steaming hot pipelines to reach the inner sanctum of the Order, and they didn't burn me at all."

"We all aren't as lucky as you, Dune." Bismark grumbled. There was a note of worry in his voice now. "If this road doesn't stop soon, you may have to go on alone. No normal person could keep going like this."

Dune flinched at Bismark's words. "I don't consider myself lucky at all. This crystal has been nothing but a curse. I would much rather be living a normal life back home with my wife right now."

Bismark realized his rash words, and quickly apologized.

"Sorry, Dune. I know this wasn't your choice. We'll be behind you for as far as we can go, I promise."

Alex and Indie nodded in agreement, and the four continued to struggle upwards.

The cloud line was thinning away from them now and they had a clear view of the surrounding landscape. If it weren't for the trying conditions, it would have been a beautiful sight. The ocean was hidden from their eyes now, and the only thing they could see below was a swirling sea of white clouds in all directions. Above them was the clearest blue sky any of them had ever seen, with a piercingly bright sun shining down on them.

The various peaks of the mountains had thinned out by now, and only a few mountains still poked through the skyline to this great altitude. One peak in particular stood out above all the rest, and it was this mountain that the road was inexorably climbing towards. Now the road was almost like a bridge, leading straight into the great mountain ahead on a narrow tract of land that seemed to float on the sea of clouds.

Again the men marveled at the skill of the ancient masons, and the three older men began to wonder if there wasn't in fact something magical about this road. Surely no human could even survive for long at this height, let alone build such a perfectly straight road out of stone across the mountain range. The old men did not mention this to Dune, who they felt would not appreciate any mention of magic at this point. He would have to come to this truth in his own way and on his own terms, just as they all had.

"There." Dune pointed at a giant opening in the tallest peak, straight ahead of them now. "Inside there is where we have to go."

"Finally," Bismark said with great relief. "If we stayed out in this air any longer, I think I would have collapsed. I can barely breath up here and I'm already half frozen."

"Yes, this is definitely the peak I had pointed to from the ship," Alex remarked almost casually. "Amazing how high up we must be. This is likely the highest peak in the world, perhaps even higher than Mt. Kolts."

"Are we really that high, Alex?" Indie said with some disbelief. Mt. Kolts was over thirteen thousand meters tall, and was generally considered the highest peak in the world. To have climbed to that height so fast was amazing. They had only been climbing for half the day, when it normally took experienced mountain climbers sometimes a full week to scale Mt. Kolts.

Indie knew they had the advantage of a perfectly maintained road guiding them safely straight up the mountain sides, where a regular mountain would have to be scaled with picks and rope meter by meter. Add to that the comparative calmness of the surrounding area keeping them from freezing in a blizzard or dying of exposure, and soon Indie could very well believe the amazing feat they had nearly accomplished.

"I know it's hard to imagine, but here we are," Alex said. "Seeing as this road was seemingly not here, or at least not visible, last time I visited this island, I think it's safe to say we are being led here on purpose. There's no way three old men like us could climb this far, this fast otherwise."

"Hey now, I'm still strong enough to beat any mountain," Bismark said, and tried to laugh. It was too high up for anything so strenuous, though, and he only coughed and gasped. "Well, in any case, we'd better keep going and reach that cave before there's no air left," he finished thinly.

The men continued across the stone path, now a narrow stone bridge crossing the clouds to the other peak. Dune squinted and looked out across the bridge to the cavern. He couldn't see any sign of Sade, but he still felt him ahead. The three Committee members must already be inside, waiting for them. Were they walking into a trap?

After what seemed an eternity, they reached the other side of the stone bridge, and stood before the great mouth at the top of the world. The stone road continued straight into the mountain without any change. To the astonishment of the group, the path ahead was lit. There were torches flickering dimly along both sides of the cavern, dotting the road far down into the mountain.

"This is impossible..." Indie gasped. "There's no air up here! How can these torches even stay lit? And for that matter, who lit them?"

"Best not to ask questions that have no answers, Indie," Alex said sagely. If this great stone path had suddenly appeared out of nowhere for them, then why couldn't the torches as well? Hadn't Phoenix Isle itself risen from the waters with a full complement of life and stone structures? The feeling of coming full circle from thirty years ago was now weighing heavily on all the men's minds.

Only Dune seemed unaffected by the miracles around him. Whether he stubbornly refused to admit their existence, or felt he had some rational explanation for what he was seeing the old men didn't know, but they wondered how much longer he could stay aloof.

"Nothing to do but keep going," Bismark said after a brief silence. "At least it's warmer inside the cavern."

No one said anything more as they continued down the strange corridor. All along the walls they could see ancient writings carved with meticulous care. Dune instantly recognized the writing as the same undecipherable text he had seen on the walls of the Order stronghold, deep beneath Narsille. If Silas had been here, he would have recognized the writing as the very same language that was carved around the door that had sealed Jehad's fate on Phoenix Isle.

Deeper and deeper they descended now, climbing down into the very heart of the mountain. The endless line of otherworldly torches remained lit no matter how deep they went. The temperature steadily increased as well, and soon they were beginning to sweat uncomfortably.

After an hour of downward motion, the path began to level out and widen until they found themselves walking through a road that would have been wider than the main roads of Narsille. The ceiling of the cave had risen far above their heads into a pitch black darkness that the feeble torches couldn't reach. There was still nowhere to go but straight ahead into the abyss.

Finally, Dune stopped and put his hand up, signaling the others to halt. Wherever this road had been leading them, it seemed this was the end.

"What is it, Dune? Do you see something? Sade?" Bismark said in a whisper.

"I don't see anything yet, but I feel Sade very close, and something else. I don't know what it is, but it's...sad? Overwhelming sadness is all I can feel from it. Just a bit more and we'll see."

Does he even realize what he's doing? Alex thought to himself. Dune is talking about these things as if they are just normal human feelings. Surely he must realize the power he is channeling isn't anything that can be explained by science. Surely he must realize the supernatural quality to all of this. Surely you must see it now, Dune...

But Dune said nothing of what he believed, or thought he knew. He simply moved forward, slowly, cautiously, continuously. He was letting the crystal almost completely guide him now, its cold voice whispering into his mind incessantly as he approached the Source it had led him here to find.

After a few more paces, the torches flared up without warning and bathed the great cathedral-sized cavern in glorious light. Now the end of the ancient road was laid bare for everyone to see. At its terminus twenty meters ahead was an enormous gate, crafted from what looked like metal, but glimmering with an unearthly light that not even mythril could compete with. It was a mighty gate, as tall as the cavern itself, and wide enough for even the Figaro to fit through. The doors were firmly shut, inaccessible to any mortal intervention.

Carved across both doors was the giant figure of a winged being, his four angel-like wings stretched to the full width of the gate. Dune recognized it instantly. It was the same being he had seen in the central sanctum of the Order, the great mythril statue of the warrior deity. Like the statue, it had four arms along with its four wings. The upper two arms held scimitars, and the lower two a book and what Dune knew now must be a pearl. The one difference between this deity and the one in the Order sanctum was its face. Where the statue had given off the impression of peace, this carving gave off a definite aura of menace. This was the Order's supreme deity ready to pass judgment on anyone who passed through these gates. This was a god of war.

"Dune, look!" Indie whispered as he tried to shake Dune from his reverie. Dune slowly came back to his senses and looked to where Indie was pointing, and where everyone but him was now looking in open-mouthed wonder.

At the foot of the great gate stood a man, robed in blue. But it was much more than a man. The first thing Dune noticed were his wings. There were two magnificent white angel wings, each as large as the man himself, protruding from his back. They shone with a holy light that Dune had only seen once before - in the Pearl of Order that sat at the heart of the Order sanctum.

The second thing Dune noticed was that he was old. Unimaginably old. His face was almost hidden by the great white beard that flowed straight down to the floor of the cave, and his hair and eyebrows obscured most of the features of his face. Even from where he stood, though, Dune could still see the great furrows that marked his face as one of extreme age.

Then it hit Dune. This was the other presence he had felt here. This being was the source of the deep sadness he was feeling. Dune slowly stepped towards him, an overwhelming urge to comfort the man pulling him forward. Who was he that he should carry such a burden of sorrow? How long had he been alone here, at the end of the world?

"Stop!"

The voice rang out clearly and froze Dune where he stood, now only ten meters from the sealed gate and its guardian angel. Bismark and the others were also frozen in place, just behind Dune. The old man stood like a statue in front of the gate, but his message was perfectly clear.

"You must go no further, mortal!"

Dune could say nothing. His voice had vanished the moment the being had forced his will on him. The sadness was filling every inch of his soul now, and he could almost feel tears rising in his eyes as he looked at the ancient guardian.

"We will go further, however, Old One."

Sade's voice called out mockingly from Dune's left. No one in Dune's group had noticed him, waiting patiently in the dark corner of the room several dozen meters away. Dehr and Cruz were still with him, but they no longer looked like partners. They seemed diminished now, just more pawns in Sade's game. Sade stepped out of the darkness, but Dehr and Cruz remained where they stood, trying not to get involved in whatever was about to happen.

"Such insolence!" The old man spoke with the utmost contempt. "Who are you to address me as an equal? Do you know where you stand, and with whom you speak?"

"I know enough to know you're in my way." Sade continued to walk slowly towards the gate, his fiery eyes meeting the old man's shining eyes every step of the way.

"Fool! Cur!" The old man shouted, then he looked hard into Sade's eyes and a gleam of recognition showed on his withered face.

"I sense great evil inside you, mortal. It is as I have dreaded, then. You are the vessel of Moloch, come to be reborn." Now the old man's wings stretched out and sharply flapped once in warning. "I tell whatever is still human inside of you - Be gone! Be gone from this accursed place before you are consumed! Do not be fooled by the Vengeful One's lies!"

Sade simply smiled and continued his path towards the gate. The old man's wings drooped, and the great sadness that had filled the room now shown clearly on his face.

"O lost one, you are forever damned and damned! It is not my role to stop you with force, for this has been ordained since time began. But I beg of you, son of Moloch, be gone! There is still time to repent!"

"I gave up my religious ways a long time ago, old man. Now step aside, or feel the Flames of Dis upon your soul!"

Now Sade was only a few steps away from the gate. A blazing aura of red heat began swirling around him. He grabbed his black robe and flung it from him in one deft motion, revealing a gruesome sight. He was clad head to toe in blood-red armor, with a cruel demon's face protruding from the abdomen. As he spoke, his voice changed to the deeper bass of some huge beast, and it was not Sade who finished his threat to the old man, but the horrid face on his stomach. This was the face of Moloch, the Vengeful Master.

"Stop, Sade!"

Sade stopped and turned to face the voice that dared command him. It was Dune.

As Dune watched Sade approach the old man, the crystal began to respond viciously. The closer Sade got to the gate, the colder Dune felt, and the harder it was for him to remain where he was. Now, as Sade revealed himself, Dune could feel his consciousness ebbing away, and the cold intelligence of Doom taking over.

Let me out, Vessel! Now is the time for my rebirth! If you want to save your precious wife, you will let me out. NOW! The Winds of Cocytus howl for your enemy's flesh, Dune Karn. Set me free, it is the only way now.

"No!" Dune shouted out loud. He would not let this perversion control him. He would control it. He must not give in to Doom, ever.

The old man's bright eyes were now on Dune, and the look of unspeakable sadness was greater than ever.

"Ah, another lost soul. My son, it is not too late for you. Give me the gravity crystal. Break free of Chemosh's will, and you may yet avert calamity. Give the crystal to me now so that I may cast into the deepest depths of this world!"

These words were the worst thing the mysterious old man could have said at that moment. Before Dune could even think, the old feelings of intense pride and ownership rose up and drowned him in a single chilling wave.

"No! It is mine, now and forever!"

Bismark, Alex, and Indie gaped at the voice that had come out of Dune's mouth. It was cold as death, and filled with a hate so deep they couldn't believe any human could utter it. It was no longer Dune's voice at all, but the voice of Chemosh, the Doomed.

"Aah, aah..." The old man wailed now, realizing too late his mistake. "We are all fools, puppets to be led by the gods at their whim. I have lived too long here, in seclusion, and have forgotten what it means to be human and weak. Forgive me, Altimus!"

The old man bowed his head and stretched his wings out once more, then covered himself with them in an act of supplication. He had failed.

While the two forces of Moloch and Chemosh forced themselves closer and closer to the forbidding gate, a third force waited quietly in the darkness behind them. It was Levi, and his malevolent eye was staring with glee at the events that were unfolding. He saw the crimson wave of fire surrounding Sade, and the heartless blue aura grow around Dune, and decided it was his turn to play. Levi stepped forward into the light and laughed.

"Hah! I suppose I am late! But I guess you could say I was saving the best for last, eh old man?"

Levi stepped towards the old man from his hiding place and focused his new black orb squarely on the being, still bent over in a position of penance. A bolt of lightning rippled out from the eye and connected with the defenseless old man.

He tumbled over in shock, but quickly returned to his standing position, seemingly unhurt. Now he rose up to his full height, at least eight feet, and stretched his wings to their full breadth. Beneath his blue robes he now revealed four hands, then four arms, all outstretched in a great cross. He looked uncannily like the apocalyptic deity on the gate behind him, and for a moment everything in the hall stopped before his unfurled might.

"You! Demon of Astarte! You dare strike at Genju, the Eldest? Your lust for power has truly driven you insane to dare such blasphemy! I say to you only once, mortal, repent! Repent of your evil ways, and you may yet be spared the great tragedy you about to commit upon yourself and upon the world!"

"I only bow to one Goddess, old man," Levi growled. "You and your master have no power over me! I say to you, be gone!"

Just as with Sade and Dune before him, Levi's voice changed as he spoke. The electric aura that had been contained within his eye now began to crackle around him, and the mellifluous voice of a young woman came startlingly from the cracked and ugly lips of Jonah Levi.

Levi defiantly stepped forward until he, Sade and Dune were each on different sides of the old man, only a few footsteps from the gate.

"Fools, all fools!" Genju said sadly. He looked one last time at the three Vessels surrounding him, and then shrunk back into the diminished old man he had appeared at first, his arms hidden, wings closed behind him. He could not hope to overpower all three, not as they were now. Even if he could, it was not through violence that he was meant to protect the gate.

"Very well, as the Prophecy has foretold, ye shall be as gods. I have served my purpose here as best I could, my Lord, but it was to no avail."

Genju stood as still as a statue for a moment and looked up above, hoping for one last sign that all was not lost. But no sign came, and he wept for the world. Truly, there was nothing he could do. Even from the beginning his Master must have known it would happen this way, and yet he was still tasked to watch over this place, as one last bastion of hope against the three-pronged tide of evil that was rising to engulf this world. One last chance for the damned ones to turn back, one last chance to stay the hand of judgment. But it was not to be.

With a heavy heart, Genju spread his wings once more, and with a powerful thrust downward, he ascended. He flew high above the heads of the three Vessels, and softly glided several meters away from the gate. There was nothing standing between the three and their destiny now.

Sade, Levi, and Dune approached the great gate of the gods as one, their Masters now in almost total control of their actions. In some small corner of Dune's mind he could see everything he was doing, but he was now powerless to stop himself. His own pride had consumed him, and now he knew he must pay.

Wrath. Lust. Pride. The three forces of evil in the world stood before the gate of judgment and called out in fury, in desire, in defiance. The gate responded with a shudder that shook the entire mountain, perhaps the entire world. With a single shining blast of divine light the gate opened wide, and soon, very soon, the world would be changed forever.

The three stepped through the gate, and vanished from the world of men.