~x~

Final Fantasy VI: The Sands of Time

Book 2: The Goddess War

Chapter 9 - The Wanderer

Part 9.6 - Night of Fire

When the dust settled from around the toppling Cerberus, Maduin found himself alone with the beast. The other surviving fighters had given everything they had and retreated, and it was up to Maduin to finish the fight. Violence was not something that came natural to him, however, and it was obvious he was at a disadvantage to the much larger Esper. If he was going to win, he had to stay out of reach of the giant hound's attacks.

Maduin looked at his adversary lying in a heap in front of him like a small mountain. Before Cerberus could rise, Maduin quickly decided the best place to subdue him from was from above. He leapt onto the creature's broad back and dug his claws into the thick ripples of flesh behind the three heads. There were dozens of broken and discarded blades and bullets embedded in the few soft spots scattered across the beast's massive form, but none of these feeble human weapons had done any serious harm. As Maduin dug his claws deeper into Cerberus's back and drew thick, glowing blood, he knew this time the creature felt the pain.

"How dare you!" the dog howled in rage, staggering to his feet with as much speed and force as he could.

Despite the violent bucking, Maduin hung on with every ounce of strength he had in him. All four claws were buried in the beast's back now, and no matter how much Cerberus struggled, he could not tear the pest from him. Nor could he sear him with his flames, or bite him with his cruel fangs. As long as Maduin stayed at the giant Esper's back, he was relatively safe.

"Get off, you insect!" Cerberus raged, whipping his reptilian tail against his back wildly, hoping to swat the bug from him.

But Maduin would not let go. Cerberus rampaged across the battlefield madly, shaking, leaping and rolling in an attempt to crush Maduin underneath him even as he flayed him with his tail. Nothing the beast did deterred Maduin, and through the sharp pain of its tail and the crushing weight of its body, the smaller Esper hung on.

Suddenly, Cerberus stopped his struggles and paused, panting heavily. All three heads were turned south, towards Antissa.

"Enough." the hound growled. "You will not cow me like some wild animal. You call yourself the protector of this village? Then protect it!"

The dog barked a malicious laugh and charged directly at the north gate of the village.

"No!" Maduin yelled from his seat atop the bestial engine.

Just hanging on would not stop the enraged Esper, he had to cause real damage to prevent the monster from reaching Antissa. The only thing he could think of to do was pump as much of his freezing essence into the beast as possible. He dug his claws in deeper, and let his magical aura flow through his body, down his arms, and directly into his hands, fingers, and claws. The cold blue stream of energy disappeared into the bloody wounds, and mixed with Cerberus's own opposing fiery essence.

The effect was immediate and painful, like a shot of poison into the giant Esper's bloodstream. Cerberus shrieked in agony as sparks of blue and red magical energy flitted from his myriad wounds. It was like he was exploding from the inside, and no amount of thick armored skin could protect him from this new assault.

"Tricky bastard...but I won't be stopped!" And despite the searing pain, Cerberus continued his charge into the town, faster than ever.

Maduin watched in horror as the north gate was smashed aside by the much broader Esper hound. Cerberus wasted no time breathing great gouts of flames onto everything he could see, instantly setting most of northern Antissa ablaze. Any structure that got in the beast's way was rammed and flattened. People ran from their houses to escape the fires, only to be trampled by Cerberus as he moved his way methodically through the town.

"See what your pride has brought you? I will destroy your precious village, and then devour every last inhabitant!"

Maduin kept forcing his cold energy into the beast, hoping he would reach a point where the unstoppable brute simply couldn't take the torture any longer. But the Esper was built like a tank, and no matter what Maduin did, it kept on smashing through buildings, walls, people. Maduin suspected he would run out of strength before Cerberus succumbed to the flood of freezing magic, but he would continue until he had nothing left to use. The people of this town had down the same for him.

As Cerberus moved southward, Maduin looked up helplessly from his task to study the devastation, knowing Mae's house was out there somewhere, and sooner or later either the Esper or his flames would reach it. His only hope was that he could stop the wild charge before they reached that point.

Not nearly far enough from the rampaging Cerberus, Mae and Elphis huddled in the dwindling safety of the Laperdeau house, listening to the chaos outside. Mrs. Laperdeau stood beside them, as stolid as ever, but showing signs of fear in her face as she looked out the window and saw only flames in the night. The house shook with every brutal act of destruction Cerberus inflicted on the town elsewhere, and the three knew it was only a matter of time before their house was next.

"That monster seems to be having his way with the town. I told you this would happen, and now we're all doomed because of that fool." Mrs. Laperdeau said angrily.

"Maydune will win!" Elphis said, jumping up and staring at the old woman with her wide, blank eyes.

Mae remained sitting on the floor in silence, struggling to keep calm as she watched her hometown burn around her.

"It's because of your 'Maydune' that this beast is here, ruining our town! If he would have stayed away, the creature would have just came and went without destroying anything, like it always did."

"You're wrong!" Elphis shouted. "The dog was gonna bust everything up sooner or later, and you know it!"

"Well now we'll never know, will we?" Mrs. Laperdeau growled back.

"Enough! Stop it! Please..." sobbed Mae from the floor.

Another explosion rocked the area just outside the house, and the three watched as a towering black mass swept by the window, blotting out the fierce glow of the flames for a moment. The house shook with the force of the passing as if it had been struck, tottering on the verge of collapse. The house had been spared by Cerberus, but everywhere the infernal hound went, a trail of fire sprang up behind it, and soon smoke was curling from just outside the structure.

"Enough is right." Mrs. Laperdeau scowled. "We're leaving before we're roasted alive. You can stay here and wait for your savior if you like, but I'm taking my daughter and getting to safety while there's still time. Max hasn't come back yet, and I can't wait any longer for him. If he's alive, hopefully we'll meet outside of town. Come, Mae."

Mrs. Laperdeau tugged at Mae's arm and brought her to her feet, half-dragging her to the house's back door.

"But we have to wait for Dune!" Mae cried, reaching back towards the front door with her free hand. "Dune!"

Elphis ran up and grabbed Mae's free hand, softly pushing her back towards Mrs. Laperdeau.

"Don't worry 'bout Maydune, he'll be okay. The old bag's right, we have to get outta here!"

Mrs. Laperdeau grimaced at Elphis's rudeness, but she didn't have time to argue manners. She took Mae's other hand and marched out the back door into the garden. Several panicked leafers bounded away from the plants and into the night as Mrs. Laperdeau stamped right across the field, ignoring anything in her path. Mae stumbled behind her, her head always turned back to the house, and the battle beyond it.

"Dune, I'll come back this time, I promise..." she whispered, too softly for her mother to hear in the roaring maelstrom outside.

Elphis did not join the two. She had stayed behind in the doomed house, now beginning to fill with the smoke from outside. Soon, fire would follow the smoke, and the house would burn. Having faced starvation and freezing to death on the streets countless times, Elphis was not afraid of her own death, but she was afraid for her new friend, somewhere out there, alone.

Fearlessly, she walked carefully out the front door, avoiding the flames now licking at the front steps, and ducking below the smoke as best as she could. Despite being blind, the smoke still stung her dead eyes and filled her nose. She coughed as she half-walked, half-crawled away from the Laperdeau house, straight into the inferno.

The wild flurry of senses that bombarded the little girl once she had cleared the smoke was unlike anything she had ever felt. She had assumed she would be able to find her way through the town just as easily as before, but at the moment her senses were completely overwhelmed. The intense heat and constant vibrating of the ground and air from explosions dulled her sense of touch, and the roar of the flames and cries of agony and destruction from a dying town were deafening, even to her. Worst of all, the stench of blood and burning flesh clogged her nose, sickening her to the point of wanting to wretch. This was not the Antissa her well-honed senses remembered. This was the Antissa of her nightmares, a maze of wild sensations that kept her from forming any kind of picture around her. For the first time in her life, she truly felt like the helpless blind girl that she appeared.

"Maydune! Where are you!" Elphis cried out, stumbling from one spot to another, doing her best to avoid any lethal missteps in the conflagration surrounding her. "Mayduuune!"

Maduin was still struggling with Cerberus's wild charge, having managed to veer the monster away from the Laperdeau house at the last second with a savage thrust of claws and a fresh burst of coldness. Maduin himself was now thoroughly battered from the path of destruction, and his icy blue blood mixed with the molten red blood of his mount, creating igneous lumps of black magical glue that seeped like tar onto the ground.

Just as Maduin thought the Laperdeau women and Elphis were safe, he saw a pair of Cerberus's ears prick up, and the head turned sharply back in the directly of the Laperdeau house. There was a malicious grin on its face, and the one good eye peered back at Maduin with glee.

"A friend of yours?" The dog snapped hungrily.

Maduin hadn't heard anything, but it was all he could do to hold on as Cerberus whirled around and began running full steam back towards the Laperdeau house. Now Maduin could see what Cerberus had heard. It was Elphis, tottering through the wreckage outside the house, barely missing one dangerous obstruction after another. She looked like she was completely lost to the world, and Maduin could see the grim look of fatal determination on her face as the two approached the girl unseen, unheard, and unfelt. What had she been thinking, leaving the house?

"Maydune, where are you!" Elphis sputtered, hacking as she breathed in the sulfurous smoke around her.

"He is here, little one..." Cerberus's right head crooned as he slowed his pace to snatch the girl up. "Your heart will be your undoing, human-lover." the left head said smugly.

Elphis gave a short shriek at the sound of the inhuman voice closing in on her, and turned to run. Her foot caught on a piece of debris and she fell face first into the smoldering dirt.

"Elphis!" Maduin cried futilely from behind Cerberus's heads. He had no choice but to remove himself from Cerberus's back. Pushing downward with a blast of his blue aura, he dislodged himself and let his own magic propel him up and over the three heads.

Landing on his feet between Elphis and the oncoming Cerberus, Maduin reached out and prepared to stop the beast with his bare hands. It was stupid and crazy, but he would let himself be crushed before he let this war take another person he cared about.

Cerberus saw the unexpected form of his adversary fall down to the ground in front of him, but had no way of stopping himself at this point, and had no reason to try. He knew he could barrel through the much smaller Esper, and then he could take this one puny sacrifice and return home, bruised and humiliated, but not beaten.

The hound reared all three heads up as its shadow rose over Maduin, the wide jaws opening to meet whatever was in front of them. Maduin braced himself, ready to grab the beast headfirst, and felt the sharp teeth crush into his palms as the endless bulk of Cerberus collided with his hands. The pain was excruciating and the force of the blow incredible, but Maduin dug his feet into the soft earth and pushed forward, both with his own prodigious strength and all the magic he could put into his arms.

His entire body was being pressed into the ground, and he could feel the bones straining and splintering in his arms as Cerberus's heads snapped furiously at his palms. The collision had felt like a car accident, but somehow he had managed to stop the beast in its tracks, and now the two were locked in a vicious embrace. Maduin had one hand clamped down on the right mouth, and one hand on the left, and he was forcing solid ice into the both orifices as fast as he could, choking the beast.

"Elphis, get out of here!" Maduin shouted, turning his head to look at the bedraggled girl still trying to free herself from the burning mass. She had stepped in the gooey tar-like mixture of blood and magic the two had been leaving in their wake, and was stuck fast.

"Impossible! But I will not be denied my prey, traitor." Cerberus's middle head said fiercely, free of the cold grasp that had locked the other two heads.

As Maduin turned his head back, he only time to glimpse a blinding flash of white-hot light as flames burned his eyes. His entire face felt like it had been hit by a blowtorch, and he howled in pain and grabbed at his burning flesh, forgetting all but the red-hot glare filling his vision.

Free from his grip, Cerberus lunged forward, knocking the blinded Maduin over and bounding towards Elphis. In a second he had reached the helpless girl, snatched her in his central mouth, and raced back towards the ruins of the northern gate.

"Maydune! Help!" Elphis cried from between Cerberus's suffocating jaws.

Maduin heard her cry, but could not see anything but a swirling storm of white and red. He stumbled after her voice, but soon that too was fading away. The one thing he could still sense was the huge magical aura of Cerberus, quickly receding back towards the mountains. He couldn't let the beast get away with Elphis!

"Elphis!" Maduin roared, springing straight towards the magical trail being left by Cerberus. He rushed blindly forward, crashing into walls, carts, flames, houses - whatever was in his path. He shot through the crumbling Antissa like a furious cannonball, heedlessly hurtling after his target. All that mattered was catching up to the cowardly beast before he escaped beyond Maduin's reach.

The hound of Moloch was fast, but Maduin in his rage was faster. The subtle glow of the giant mythril gates of Narsille rose up over the horizon, but Maduin could see nothing. All was a painful blur of white haze with spots of red. Every fiber in his body ached with fatigue now, but he kept pushing himself forwards, barely touching the ground as mile after mile of snowy terrain flashed under his feet.

Soon Cerberus had reached the gates, skidding to halt before he slammed into the immovable walls that towered above even him. He roughly dropped the now unconscious Elphis at the foot of his Master's stronghold, pacing nervously back and forth. Any moment Maduin would be here, and despite his bravado, the cur was afraid. He had felt an unfathomable power from the pathetic Esper when they collided, a power greater than even the mighty Cerberus. Was that the power of a Herald? Or was it something else?

"Zona, where are you...? I have the sacrifice!" Cerberus growled piteously into the darkness, speaking seemingly to himself.

'You have nowhere to run now, dog!" Maduin said furiously from behind the confused Esper. He couldn't see, but he knew the direction he had been headed, and knew from Cerberus's aura that the two of them must be alone in front of the gates of Narsille by now.

All three of Cerberus's heads turned frantically in every direction, trying to see something that wasn't there. Convinced that he was not going to receive any unseen help, he turned away from the gate and stared into the burned, bloody face of his opponent. The savage look of focused determination on Maduin's scarred face made the hound cower back in fear before he remembered who and what he was.

"I am an Esper of Moloch! My vengeance is limitless! How dare you stand before me at the foot of my master's realm, and boast! Graoooh!" Cerberus howled at the full moons above, and mindlessly rushed Maduin in a desperate rage. Surely the insect couldn't stop his charge twice!

Sensing another rush from Cerberus's aura, Maduin ducked down this time and curled into a hard ball, his shoulders pointed directly at the beast. He knew his arms couldn't take another collision like that without being shattered to pieces, so he simply protected himself as best he could and prepared for another assault. The enraged Esper had no plan as he stood on the white fields. His only thoughts were on getting Elphis back, no matter what. The two would struggle like animals until one or the other was exhausted, and then...nothing. There were no thoughts beyond this moment of bloodlust.

Cerberus rushed at Maduin with madness in his eyes, and bubbling drool foaming at his blood-drenched mouths. The heat pouring off his body as he used his own super-hot magical aura to fuel his momentum ignited the air around him, turning him into a giant wrath-filled fireball. He did not see or care what his opponent was doing, he simply charged wildly, intending to flatten the insignificant Esper with the force of a train from hell.

When the two met, there was a sickening crack like thunder, then a high-pitched yelp of pain, then silence. The unstoppable Cerberus had gone up against the immovable Maduin, and now staggered backwards in stunned pain. All three heads were gibbering wordlessly through thick gobbets of blood and boiling spittle. A gaping hole had been gouged out of the base of Cerberus's thick neck, where the three heads joined to one body. Blood and fire poured from the hole as Cerberus struggled to speak.

"Grrr...grgrg!" Cerberus gasped, unable to form words from his ruined throat.

Maduin had been knocked back a dozen yards, and was sprawled out on the smooth ground like a rag doll. There was a deep track of upturned snow and dirt between him and the mortally wounded Cerberus. Hissing blood and foamy drool pockmarked the path where Cerberus had stumbled backwards. Maduin was not sure what had happened, but his shoulder ached like it had been smashed to bits.

His vision was still nothing but fire-haze, but he could feel a hot fluid covering the large spike that jutted from his aching shoulder, the one Cerberus had collided with. He could hear the whimpering sounds of a large beast in wordless agony, and he realized the rash beast must have impaled itself on the lethal tip of his shoulder-spike.

Maduin staggered to his feet, calling out for Elphis. But the only sounds he heard were the gasping breaths of Cerberus. The stubborn Esper was not dead yet, though, and Maduin could plainly see the shape of the angry aura still flickering in his mind's eye, as big and hungry as ever.

Reluctantly, Maduin trudged over to where Cerberus lay in a growing pool of boiling blood. All the snow near the body had melted away, and a steaming mist surrounded the rapidly rising and falling mass. There was nothing he could do, and nothing he wanted to do for the monster.

One of Cerberus's giant paws rose shakily and covered the huge wound at the base of his throat, enabling him to force out a few syllables.

"Ki..ll..me.." Cerberus's right head said almost unintelligibly, blood pouring from his mouth and obscuring its words The head fell limply to the ground, no sign of life in its ruined eyes. A dagger protruded from the lolling tongue as it rolled out in a final gasp.

Maduin was sickened at the thought, and refused. "I am not a murderer. You did this to yourself. I won't stain my hands any more than I already have. Unlike you, I have a heart."

"Heart...ha..." the left head said hatefully, then collapsed, joining the right head on the cold ground. Both eyes had been darkened on this head, and a dagger still hung from one of the bloody sockets.

Maduin watched patiently as the life force left each head one by one. It was a pathetic sight, but he knew he had to bear witness to the end. He watched as the red hot aura remained the same size, but dulled to a ruddy color, almost brown. The center head alone refused to fall, and it quivered with dying fury as the one good eye looked straight into Maduin's soul, a hangman's grimace stretched painfully across his canine face as he clutched for each snatch of air.

"If...you will not...then..." the head struggled, barely able to remain coherent. The one red eye bulged with the last embers of life.

"...DIE!" the head roared with the last strength it had.

One last torrent of fire exploded from his mouth like vomit, as much blood as flame. It was not enough to damage Maduin's thick Esper skin, and Maduin stood by unfazed as the paw fell from the mutilated throat, and the fire ceased abruptly. The head lolled hard to the left, in the direction of the silently watching Narsillian gates, then the lone smoldering eye dimmed, dimmed, dimmed...and went out, the final coal in a furnace that had finally been exhausted.

Maduin did not see any of this with his eyes, but as he watched with his magical second sight, he saw something peculiar. The giant magical aura that had been slowly changing color to a thick, muddy brown now turned almost coal black, and began to shrink for the first time. It collapsed in on itself like a dying star, layer upon layer folding inwards like a blooming rose in reverse. It was a darkly beautiful sight, and Maduin wondered what the transformation must look like in normal vision.

Soon the once formidable mass of magical energy was only a small, narrow shape that could have fit in Maduin's palm. He still felt the full force of Cerberus's magical essence coming from its direction, but there was nothing left of the physical shape and form of the Esper that had been known as Cerberus. There was only this lump...this magicite stone.

Maduin took the few steps across the void where Cerberus's bulk had once lain, and bent to pick up the magicite. He wasn't sure what would happen if he touched it. Would it growl and bark at him in impotent rage? He had no idea what was the actual truth behind Genju's claim of fallen Espers speaking from their magicite remains. Titan still refused to reveal any sign that his essence still existed within his silent stone tomb.

But Maduin never found out what would have happened had he tried to claim the magicite. As soon as his weary claw reached out for the stone, an alien voice spoke from just above him, buzzing and metallic.

"That prize is not for you..."

As Maduin watched in second sight, another magical essence appeared out of thin air and snatched Cerberus's magicite remains neatly away. This unknown magical aura glowed emerald green, and was much smaller than Cerberus's. It hovered just out of Maduin's range, oddly flitting in and out of existence like a bad projection.

"Who are you? Are you here to fight?" Maduin said with a false boldness. He was utterly exhausted now, and even though this unusual entity felt much smaller than Cerberus, he was in no shape to fight anything.

"I am Zona, the Seeker of Moloch." the voice rasped in the darkness. Its unplaceable voice sounded like it came from a recording - both distant and inhuman in its tones. He had heard something similar in the mechanical voice of the giant robotic Alexander, but there was still something distinctly organic in the sound of this creature's voice, like the droning sound of a large, buzzing insect.

"I warn you, if you try to harm the girl or the village..."

The voice hissed haughtily, cutting Maduin off. "I am no savage beast like Cerberus, bathing in the blood of my victims. I merely observe, collect, and report. Nothing more."

"Then what are you doing here?" Maduin asked, curious about this new, seemingly pacific being in the service of Moloch.

"Cerberus called, and I came. Too late it would seem." The voice made a whispery sound that Maduin took to be a chuckle, then vanished. It reappeared instantly further away, and Maduin sensed it was now hovering over Elphis.

"A pathetic sacrifice, and one not worthy of my time. You may keep this one, traitor. I have what I came for."

Maduin had tried to reach Elphis as soon as the magical aura appeared beside her, but he was once again stopped by the unnervingly calm voice. Without warning, the emerald essence vanished once again, and this time did not reappear.

The voice echoed into the empty darkness, "Do not follow. Cerberus may be gone, but there are far worse sentinels than he beyond this point. Unless you wish to give yourself to my Master, I suggest you leave this place. Until we meet again, Ex-Herald..."

The voice slowly trailed off, then faded to nothing. Maduin had no idea what to make of this new Esper, but if he was allied with Sade and Moloch, he was an enemy. Their paths would cross again someday, but for now the battle was over and Maduin was alone once more. He had won in the end, but at what cost?

For now, there was nothing to do but take Elphis back to Antissa, and hope she was alright. His eyes squinted in pain as his vision slowly cleared, but at least he had not been permanently blinded by the vicious surprise attack. As he gathered the unconscious girl's fragile body in his half-numb arms and walked back down the mountain trail towards Antissa, he knew what he would see.

Flames still rose from every corner of the now fully awakened town, and alarm bells rang out through the night. His vision was still bad, but he could see specks running back and forth, fighting the blaze. Without their master, the cursed fires would soon sputter and die just as Cerberus had, and the town would survive. But how many innocent people had died, how many homes destroyed? What of Mae? How could she love the monster who had now destroyed both her homes?

Maduin knew he would not be coming home to a hero's welcome tonight, but he soldiered on, his victory over the mighty Cerberus leaving a bitter, empty taste in his mouth. This would be the course of his life now, and he knew he had to accept it, or turn into a vengeful, hate-filled creature as vile as any spawn of the Vengeful Poltergeist himself.

As he looked at the frail form nestled in his arms, he was reminded of why he continued to fight for a race he was no longer a part of. There was still hope in this world, and innocence, and he would not let it be extinguished so easily. Elphis was proof of that, and he would make sure her light would continue to shine.