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Final Fantasy VI: The Sands of Time

Book 1: The Begininng

Chapter 8 - Dream's End

Part 8.12 - Unholy Union

Dune felt the temperature of his cage of smoke rise as he descended into the inferno of Narsille's underground. Blind and deaf in his lightless prison, he could only guess where Sade was taking him. As a human, Dune was sure he would have been roasted alive in this hell, and no doubt the monster had done exactly that to countless other people trapped in his invisible web throughout the city streets. As an Esper infused with the power of the Master of Ice, Dune felt the blazing heat no more than he would a warm breeze. If Sade was hoping to defeat Dune this way, he would be disappointed.

Not that Dune cared one way or the other about his fate anymore. He had been sorely used by the gods in their war, and he wanted nothing more now than to disappear and be forgotten. He had lost his friends, his home, his very humanity, and now his wife to this lunacy, and Dune was tired of it all. As far as he was concerned, the man known as Dune Karn was dead. There was only the Esper, Maduin.

The temperature continued to soar as the minutes ticked on, and Dune wondered just what the limits on his body truly were. It felt like he was falling straight through a volcano, yet all was silent darkness. Just when he started to actually feel uncomfortably warm, the descent ceased, and all was still, quiet, and dark. The tripled voice of Sade - no, Crusader - pierced the darkness, and Dune knew he had arrived at his unknown destination.

Welcome to the throne of Moloch, Esper of Chemosh. We are impressed you survived the descent, but this is where your journey ends. We had assumed the Flames of Dis would incinerate you, but it will be a pleasure cleansing you in the crucible of our own fire!

Dune looked blankly at the black wall of smoke in front of him, not even trying to claw his way out. He expected some sort of attack like the explosion he had seen through the eyes of Maduin back on Crescent Island. If they unleashed that unstoppable force against him while he was trapped in here, he doubted there would be anything left of his wretched Esper body but ash. And would that be so bad?

Do not lose hope!

Dune heard the voice of Elia in his mind, and saw the string of pearls around his neck glow brighter. Hope...what hope was left for him in this city of the dying dreams?

Let the Nacre guide you. As long as you believe, hope will survive. Believe, Dune...believe...

The Nacre? Did she mean the pearls? He looked down at the softly shimmering necklace. The warmth he felt flowing from them was different from the oppressive heat that surrounded him. It felt like he was basking in the rays of sunlight on the shores of Elia's dream beach. It felt like peace. Like hope itself.

Holding the strange spheres of light in his hands, he felt like maybe there was something he could do. Thoughts of the things he had lost flashed through his mind's eye: the quiet moments alone with Mae in their apartment, the stern, yet fatherly gaze of Captain Bismark on his ship, even the strange shopkeeper and his little furry pet...all his friends and loved ones, they were all there. What would they say if he just gave up and died without a fight?

"Stop moping around and do something, ya bum!" Bismark's voice echoed from Dune's memories.

Dune couldn't help by smile at the thought of Bismark yelling at him from beyond the grave. Yes, the Captain would never just give up. He'd fight, and keep fighting until there was nothing left of him.

"Dune, I love you, but you really do worry me sometimes. Don't get yourself hurt, you hear me?" Mae's concerned voice joined Bismark's in Dune's memories.

Mae...she was gone from his world now, but she was still alive. She had waited for him beyond hope while others fled their homes. The husband she had fell in love with was not the man who had finally walked through their door, though. Dune didn't blame her for running from him, and if she could see him right now, as he really was, he knew she would want him to live. He may have given up on her, but she hadn't given up on him, and he suddenly felt he couldn't give up on himself either.

"Mae, I will live..." Dune said quietly, clutching the pearls in his clawed hands like a man in prayer.

White light burst from the pearls and filled him with a new feeling of power.

"Mae, Captain...I think I finally believe," Dune said, louder. The light shone brighter. He held the pearls in front of him, like an offering.

"Elia! I believe!" Dune shouted, a sense of purpose welling up inside him. The last ray of hope was not lost just yet, and Dune believed for the first time in his life. Not in magic or gods, but in the power of his own strength, of his own ability to shape the world around him. He would not be a puppet to other people's desires again. He was free.

And now the monster waiting outside would learn what freedom really meant.

Dune gripped the Nacre tight and sent his own boundless energy into it, holding nothing back. The pearls burned with holy light brighter than the sun, blinding Dune and tearing through the black barrier like paper. The light continued to grow, bathing everything in their purifying light. Dune could see nothing, but he heard the surprised roar of multiple beings just outside his rapidly dissolving cage.

Once the wall of smoke had been blown away, Dune halted the flow of energy into the Nacre to see what was waiting for him on the other side. He opened his eyes as the brilliant light faded, and saw a sight both strangely familiar and intensely foreign.

Dune stood in what had formerly been the central hall of the Order's underground sanctuary. Sade had transformed the once immaculately sculpted hall into a vision of pure chaos. No longer were there the towering pillars lining the walls with their visions of warring angels and demons carved into them. The grand arches of the ceiling from which the opulent chandeliers had hung were gone, as was the red carpet on its vast floor of pristine marble. All the former majesty of the cathedral-sized room had been burned away in the fiery furnace of Sade's wonton destruction of Narsille's secret underground world.

Now, the walls and ceiling were solidified lava, cooled into twisted, flowing patterns of lumpy black rock. Thin veins of glowing magma criss-crossed the lava's surface, pulsing with a fiery essence from the molten core at the end of the room. The room had seemed alive with a flowing divine energy before, but now that flow had turned into a crimson nightmare.

Where the mighty statue of the winged deity that Dune now knew to be Altimus had once stood was now a new statue, carved from the melted rock that made up the entirety of the new hall. This new dark god was a fearsome sight, and filled Dune with none of the peaceful or sagacious intent of the former statue. Its four great eagle's wings were now a pair of cruel vulture's wings, inviting death and despair. In place of the long robes of a priest were the familiar sharp angles of armor plating that Dune had seen under Sade's robes, complete with the fiendish face carved into the abdomen. Flames glowed from the creases in the sculpted armor, as well as from the eye slits in the great horned helmet the statue wore. In the demon statue's hands was not the judging scimitars of Altimus, but a giant executioner's axe, ready to exact vengeance on all who dared oppose the God of Fire, Moloch, the Vengeful Poltergeist. For Sade's unseen Master was who this statue must surely depict, in all his unstoppable wrath.

The vibrant red carpet on which the statue had rested was now a path of twin yellow flames that led straight up to where the Pearl of Order had once rested peacefully on its dais. Now, there was only an exposed pool of magma, flowing outwards and filling the cavern with its demon's fire. In front of this beating heart of flame stood the hulking Esper form of Sade himself, still stunned by the outburst of light from Dune. On either side of the armored fiend stood two creatures as silent and unmoving as the statue of Moloch in the center of the room. Dehr and Cruz, the other two members of the unholy triad that called itself Crusader.

Like Sade, they both wore copper-hued armor now, each giving off their own red aura. Dehr's armor fit her form like an exquisite warrior princess, making her a surprisingly beautiful vision of destruction. Her face was a deathly white, with no emotion visible on it as she stood silently by Sade's side. Her hair had gone from the tightly pinned dark brown to a wildly flowing gold halo, matching her armor. Behind her flowed a regal cape of gold, untouched by the intense heat around her. Even though she was now Sade's slave, she still gave off the queenly air of command that she had strived to attain as a human.

The once portly and unassuming Cruz had been transformed into a skeletal horror that would have instantly earned him the intimidation he had so craved in his former life. Unlike Sade and Dehr, his armor did not cover most of his form. Instead, the randomly exposed bones of his new body glowed with the ruddy color of the other's armor, and were likely just as hard. Curled around his lower half was a long tail, making him look more bestial than human. He now had four arms, but two of them were grossly disproportioned and ended in a deadly set of blades instead of hands. The other two arms were normal sized, and crossed his broad chest in a statement of arrogance and superiority he had never had as the weak, fat subordinate to the President.

Of the three beings that made up the Crusader triad, Cruz had gone through the most striking transformation. His intense loathing of his own weak body in life had given him the formidable demon warrior guise he now wore as an Esper. But like Dehr, that power had come at the cost of his own individuality. Neither Dehr nor Cruz made a single movement or thought without the central Sade in this frightful union. Their wills had been absorbed by Sade's overwhelming influence, and the three now thought and acted as one being.

Somewhere deep inside the consciousness of Crusader, Dehr's and Cruz's individual psyches twisted and turned in naked horror in the face of the true mind of their former comrade. They were now privy to all Sade's deepest hate-filled desires and machinations, and their fear and weakness were completely exposed to Sade's brutal presence. The two trapped souls lived an existence of perpetual futility and fear, watching themselves bend to Sade's every command, both loving and hating the power they had succumbed to so willingly.

And now these three twisted forms stared at Dune as one malevolent Esper, waiting to see what he would do next.

Dune took in his new surroundings grimly, noting that there were several dozen dead bodies of Order priests lying on the scorched surface of the hall. These bodies had been brought here intact and unharmed, protected from the flames of Moloch's throne. Why? Some sort of offering? Whatever Sade was planning, Dune was going to put a stop to it, right here.

"Sade!" Dune said in a loud voice, filled with all the strength he could find within himself. "I won't let you take my homeland so easily!"

The central form of Sade laughed a thick, choking laugh. "What is left of your precious homeland, Esper? I have already claimed Narsille for Moloch. Its complete purification is inevitable now."

"This land is still my home, no matter what you do to it, Sade," Dune said defiantly. "I will fight you for every last stone!"

"Your insolence is tiresome," Sade rumbled from within his armored body. "You cannot stand against the combined might of Crusader here, on the very throne of Moloch! We will purify you, and then you will join our Master's flesh."

"Join him?" Dune said, wondering what Sade's plan really was.

"Pathetic that the Herald of Chemosh does not even know his own Master's plans," Sade said with a flicker of disdain in his glowing eyes. "Our Masters wish to rule over the mortal realm, and require mortal bodies to inhabit. That statue you see before you is the vessel that our Master will possess when the ritual is complete."

"I am no one's Herald now!" Dune yelled.

"Oh? And yet here you are, ready to die for the very cause you were created for. You are a weapon of war, born only to fight, and so that is what you choose to do now, even freed from Chemosh's hold. The Master of Ice chose well in you, Esper." Sade said as he laughed at Dune's fate.

"It is my choice to fight you, Sade! I am free to fight for what I believe in now, and not merely as a tool in your schemes." Dune said, angered at the thought of still being controlled.

"It does not matter what you believe," Sade replied. "The ritual has begun. I have shared my essence with the female essence of Dehr, and the spark of a pureblood Esper soul has been passed to the statue, creating the necessary vessel. It is only a matter of sacrificing flesh until the body is fully formed, and the rebirth of the Master of Fire will be complete."

Dune did not understand what Sade was saying, but as if to answer his unspoken confusion, the grim statue of the Master of Fire gave off a powerful wave of evil energy, bulging and pulsing as if alive. A harsh voice scraped across Dune's mind as the wave washed over him.

Chemosh's children are a stubborn, prideful breed, just like their creator. My Herald, kill this infidel quickly, so that the ritual of my rebirth may be completed on schedule. His body will nourish me far more than these feeble humans.

Dune's body trembled at the presence that swept over it, but he would not be intimidated anymore. His days of letting Sade manipulate him were at an end.

"You can't control me, Sade!" Dune said angrily, then turning his head to the living statue, "And neither can you! Doom has no power over me anymore, and I will not submit to you either!"

"You dare speak to the Master of Fire in those tones?" Sade seethed. "Once the ritual is complete and his purified body is whole, he will rule over you and your world. Kneel before your God!"

Sade rushed at Dune in a fireball of rage, threatening to crush him with the full force of his gigantic frame. Dune barely had time to dodge to the side, even with his enhanced Esper reflexes. Despite his size, Sade was fast, very fast.

"Dehr! Cruz! Seize him!" Sade shouted as he stopped himself halfway down the hall. Without a word, the two twisted forms of Dehr and Cruz moved to flank their prey.

Dune roared and let his anger wash over him. He felt the cold surge of magic flow through him again, and aimed two large boulders of solid ice at the fast approaching slaves. Dehr gracefully spiraled out of the way of the first shot as if she were gliding on a current of air, but Cruz's slower body took the second shot straight in the chest and toppled backwards.

Neither Esper said a word, but kept coming towards him, relentless servants of Moloch. Dune tried to attack again, but he found he couldn't. It was not easy using the magical energies of his new body in such a focused way yet. These monsters had given themselves completely over to their Master, and were far better at controlling their powers than he.

As Dune stood with his arms ineffectually raised against the oncoming attackers, Dehr pulled from her armor a sharp blade made of the same golden material, and Cruz unsheathed a similar weapon from his side. They both struck at Dune's hands with the points of their blades simultaneously, impaling his hands straight through and dragging him across the hall towards the statue of Moloch. He found himself pinioned against the statue and cried out in pain at seeing his seemingly impervious skin pierced so easily.

He struggled to free himself, but it was no use. The strange blades kept him trapped and his magical energies sealed, a defenseless morsel to be consumed by Moloch.

"Now, you will join us, Dune," Sade said gleefully as he approached Dune. The flames inside his armor flared up in anticipation of this grand sacrifice. A Herald joining with his Master! This would greatly accelerate the tedious process of flesh-binding. Instead of the required thousands of weak human bodies, it would only take perhaps this one Esper of Chemosh!

"Sade, you don't know what you're doing," Dune said as he tried to pull himself free from the wicked blades. Glowing blue blood seeped from the wounds in his hands, reminding him again just how far from human he was.

"I know exactly what I'm doing, worm," Sade said with surprising anger. "I once stood in this very hall and prayed to a false God, hoping for salvation. Instead I was granted deception and death! Well now I grant the deceivers death, and all who allowed their lie to continue for so many generations." Sade spat what looked a drop of melting blood at the ground as he spoke. "I will have my revenge on this world, no matter what it costs me! I have no fear of death anymore, Esper."

Dune knew it was impossible to reason with Sade. His was consumed with dreams of revenge, and had dragged countless innocent lives down with him into his own personal hell. Now, Dune saw that he would be the next victim in Sade's holy war against humanity. But surely there must be some weakness to this monster that had once been a man?

I am his weakness, son of Silas...

Dune heard the faint voice deep inside his soul, deeper than the voice of Elia. It was so far away, so fragile, but it was there, clinging to the life energy he had received from Captain Bismark, and that Bismark had received from his father. But who...

I am Sade, and yet I am not. I am what was left of his humanity, given to your father and then passed onto his friend. Now a small piece of what was once good and human in Sade resides in you, son of Silas. I am Jehad.

Dune was dumb-founded at hearing this foreign voice inside his head, but it did bear a slight resemblance to Sade's voice, albeit much younger and more gentle. If this was Sade, could he trust it?

I am not Sade! Believe in me, for I am the only weapon you have against this foe.

Dune listened to the voice of Jehad in stunned silence, watching as Sade approached with an evil glint inside the visor of his helm. What weapon could this tiny spark of life hold?

Sade gained his current power in exchange for his humanity. My fear of death was the only thing holding him back from a true union with the terrible power of the Vengeful Master. Once he conquered the last part of me that dwelled in his soul, he was truly invincible, a fully formed Esper of Moloch. Now, by a strange twist of fate, a piece of me still remains in you, Dune! Use the Nacre and show Sade his own fear once again! Don't let my hopes and dreams die in the hollow shell of that monster...

It was hard to fathom how he had come this point, but there was nothing left to do but believe in this ghost of a dead man. Dune looked straight at Sade as his massive bulk filled Dune's vision, and smiled his feral grin.

"Something amusing, Esper?" Sade said as he reached out to offer Dune to his Master.

"I will show you fear," Dune said in a low voice as Sade lowered his lofty head to Dune's face.

"What?" Sade said without care, his internal fires licking at Dune's face.

Dune closed his eyes and focused his thoughts on the Nacre still around his neck. He saw in his mind's eye a man in a white robe he had never seen before, but who he instinctively knew must be Jehad. How far this poor soul had fallen! But now, it was Dune's duty to help what was left of this man's humanity atone for the sins he had unleashed on the world.

"Say hello to Jehad for me, Sade."

"W-what!" Sade said in surprise, his attention coming into sharp focus at the mention of his human name, long buried.

Dune tensed his entire body against the blades in his palms and threw all of Jehad's life, dreams, and hopes into the Nacre's glowing orbs. The pearls flared brightly, and then the energy fused into a single ray of light that shot out from the central pearl, directly into the opening in Sade's helmet.

"Grah! What is this!" Sade wailed, grabbing at his face. The forms of Dehr and Cruz looked at each other, realizing that for this brief moment they were no longer under Sade's control.

"No! Get away from me! I destroyed you! I fear nothing!" Sade bellowed, stumbling away from the statue in agony and, unbelievably, fear.

"Dune, we are sorry it had to come to this." Dehr said in the strangely angelic voice of her Esper body.

"I wanted power, but not this kind of power..." Cruz said sadly, an odd attempt at a frown covering his skull-like face.

The two momentarily freed Espers grabbed the blades trapping Dune and pulled them free, then stepped back in shamed silence.

"This will not stop him, Dune." Dehr said somberly as she watched Sade struggle with his lost humanity all over again. "He beat Jehad before, and he will again. And not only that but..."

"YOU...SCUM!" Sade roared, trying to maintain control over himself. "This is not over! Let's see you use that toy against this! Dehr, Cruz, come!"

Dune watched as the tragically brief flicker of awareness faded from the two slave's faces, and they were Crusader again.

"I will have my revenge!" Sade said savagely as he clawed at the white light still filling his helmet. Then the three Espers were gone. The black smoke-form whirled erratically, then vanished into the cracks in the charred walls.

Dune rubbed his wounded hands carefully, hoping it was finally over. He still felt the evil presence of Moloch from the statue behind him, but its power was silent, for the moment. He had no sooner breathed a sigh of relief when the ground began to shake violently. Was Sade creating another earthquake?

No...there was something terribly different about this quake. Dune felt an immense magical aura rising from beneath him, faster than he would have thought possible through solid rock. The shaking intensified, threatening to bring down the entire hallway. Dune knew something was coming, and tried to escape the room before whatever it was surfaced, but found that the fiendish lair had no entrance or exit. It was just a pocket of empty space inside the sea of molten rock Sade had unleashed under Narsille.

As Dune stumbled away from where he felt the tremendous energy, the ground exploded in a rain of rocks, ash, and lava. A huge dust cloud obscured his vision, but Dune could see glowing lights flickering through the haze. It looked like some sort of machine had drilled its way up through the earth, but there was nothing below this place...

Then Dune saw something that almost defied explanation as the dust settled. It was a machine, but not like anything he had ever imagined in his wildest dreams. At first glance it looked almost like the giant mobile fortress, the Figaro, but how was that possible? As Dune looked on wonder, he realized it was built vaguely in the shape of a man. An enormous central body flanked by two curving towers that functioned as arms or legs was rising from the giant hole. Intricate turrets and spinnerets covered its back like the many spires of a classic Order church, giving the strange creation the look of a giant mechanical cathedral or castle. Where the head might have rested was a flat visor-like aperture, firmly shut. What on earth had Sade sent after him?

In response to his gaze, the shut visor slowly opened, exhaling a white mist that might have been steam, or a man's breath. Inside the opening Dune saw a bright white light. An eye? Dune had no idea.

The eye-light turned towards Dune with a vaguely life-like movement and now Dune saw something else inside the opening. A large black globe was lodged firmly inside the visor area, just behind the searching light. The globe began to glow a deep red as if it were being heated from the inside of the mechanical monstrosity.

"Who...what are you?" Dune shouted up at the head-like protrusion high above him. Perhaps he could communicate with it. Dehr and Cruz had broken free of Sade's control for a moment, so maybe there was a chance for this strange fusion of machine and magic.

A grinding sound from deep within the outer shell of the creation echoed upwards and out of the opening, like an old recording machine. It sounded mechanical, but had slight human intonations.

"Flee or perish, enemy of Moloch." The voice sounded vacant and lifeless.

"I can help you! Are you an Esper?" Dune asked, wondering if such a thing as a mechanical Esper was even possible.

"I...am...Alex...ander...," The robotic voice replied on command. "Flee or perish, enemy of Moloch." It repeated in the same tone as before.

Dune almost fell backwards onto the burning ground at the name. "Alex? Alex Figaro?"

"Alex Figaro is gone. I am only the Esper Alexander. I warn you one last time - Flee or perish, enemy of Moloch." The black globe behind his single glowing eye turned from red to orange as he spoke his warning a third time.

Dune did not know what to do. If this was Alex, then he couldn't fight against him, could he? Dune couldn't leave his friend behind, though! There had to be some way...

Before Dune could find a solution to this new problem, the aperture opened wider, revealing the full sight of the glowing globe inside the Esper's visor. Dune had just enough time to register total shock at seeing the Pearl of Order glowing white hot inside Alexander before he was overwhelmed by an amazingly powerful burst of holy light that consumed the entire hall in its divine judgment.