Disclaimer: I own nothing used in this except my OCs. Everything else is owned by whoever made it in the first place.
Author's note: This chapter is finally where the story moves forward. Also the thing with Phoenix Downs will be handled in the next few chapters. I won't just write them out or ignore them. The items still have a use but these next few chapters will show just how bad the situation is getting and what is yet to come. Now I hope you enjoy the final battle of this section. The arc will finish in 2 chapters and will answer a few questions about what is going on and who is to blame. Also I need song suggestions for an uplifting section. Something that is upbeat and energetic while at the same time being optimistic. If you have any suggestions please PM me. I don't want to artificially increase my review count with suggestions on songs. Now onto the chapter.
The Almighty Incarnation of Hatred given Life: Zeromus
(Spira. Above the Zanarkland Ruins.)
Zeromus screeched as he pulsated and started revealing his true form. Vaan had just remembered the fall of his world while a few others remembered where they were just one month ago. The situation has just gone from being hell in a hand basket to there being a chance to save one of the last chances for reality. Vaan was startled out of his trance like state by The Strahl landing and everyone getting their weapons. Vaan ran and grabbed his katana and felt a chill. The area around him turned black and white as time seemed to stop around Vaan and a familiar voice spoke in his head.
"Vaan I need you to get that girl out of there. She is a vital part to my plan and one of the few people that can stop The Void before it consumes all," Inako's voice asked Vaan in a strangely polite tone.
"We were already going to save her. And if she can stop The Void from consuming more of existence then that means there is the chance to reverse everything back to normal right? Ivalice will be restored once this is all said and done right?" Vaan asked hoping to get Inako to reveal if he actually intended to restore their home or if he was just using them.
"Ivalice was demolished by Zeromus. It will take more than stopping The Void to restore it back to existence. However if we successfully stop The Void and Zeromus's group then I can show you where to obtain seven balls with the ability to grant two wishes to anyone who finds and unites them. You will only get two wishes though before they scatter themselves across the world and turn to stone. Think about it and then once this is done I give you my word that you can restore Ivalice and its entire populace," Inako said in a calm and restrained voice.
"Why don't we just use those to stop The Void then?" Vaan asked confused and slightly pissed at Inako's possible stupidity.
"That was one of my first ideas. It backfired badly. The balls can only grant wishes up to a certain limit. The Void is too much for the magic in them to stop. However they can revive the dead in mass quantities and restore worlds. Granted however the dead have to only be dead for a certain length of time. After the time is up they are gone forever," Inako explained in a kind manner.
"How long do we have?" Vaan asked as time slowly started moving for him again.
"This Void crisis started about 9 months so that leaves us at maximum 3 months to restore all the dead back to life," Inako said before grunting in pain.
"What was that?" Vaan asked as he made a mental note of finding those balls within 3 months.
"An old friend isn't happy to see me and is giving me a light beating for not telling him that I was leaving him," Inako said before the world returned to normal for Vaan.
"Inako?" Vaan asked loudly while finishing preparing.
He got no response from Inako. Vaan ran to the exit of the airship with his other friends and allies. Balthier reloaded his rifle as Fran checked her arrows to make sure she had grabbed the ones she wanted. Ashe and Basch discussed a strategy for dealing with Zeromus while casting protective spells on the party. Penelo finished casting the spell Haste which allowed them to speed up to almost twice their normal speed in combat. Vaan breathed a sigh of relief before opening the door and pulling out his Masamune katana.
"Zeromus we have come for you," Vaan yelled as he charged ahead of the others.
"Vaan we need to watch out," Penelo and Ashe yelled out at the same time as they ran towards Kairi.
They looked at each other awkwardly and chose to ignore the fact both of them wanted Vaan safe. Ashe had grown to respect Vaan and was wanting to make sure that all of them made it out alive. Vaan was one of her only friends left in the universe and if anything had happened to him she would likely break down from losing one of her only remaining close friends. She didn't however want to ignore the girl who was attacked by Zeromus and looked over her injuries.
"It doesn't look too bad. We should get her to The Strahl though," Ashe said to Penelo as the ground shook beneath their feet.
They turned around and saw Zeromus morph into his true form. It was a massive beast with exposed muscle and bone as its body. It was at least the size of a few city blocks and had long arms stretching out at about fifty feet in length. Its head was about 20 feet in size and had red glowing eyes. The rest of the body had just bone and muscle making a massive beast of unimaginable power and darkness. The sky turned black as it roared.
"Penelo get that girl to safety. Get everybody to The Strahl. I'm going after Vaan," Ashe said as she rushed towards Vaan who was staring at the massive beast stunned in fear.
"I am Zeromus. Hatred given life," the beast roared.
Vaan felt his eardrums pop and he almost went deaf from the noise. Ashe grabbed him and pulled him towards The Strahl. As Vaan snapped out of his fear induced stupor he quickly ran with her while shaking his head.
"We weren't ready to fight him. No one could fight something that large and powerful without heavy artillery. The Strahl doesn't have anything that could even fire on that thing," Vaan said in a hopeless tone.
"Vaan we need to get to The Strahl. Then we can think of something to kill that thing," Ashe said as she continued running with Vaan.
"What about those items that we took from the base. You think if we hit one spot of that thing with everything we have maybe it will flinch," Vaan asked as Zeromus turned towards them.
The Strahl was close enough that they could run inside before Zeromus started moving. As soon as they were inside they closed the door and yelled at Balthier "Get us out of here."
The Strahl quickly took off and got out of range of possible physical attacks by Zeromus. However Zeromus wasn't going to let them escape so easily.
"Meteor," Zeromus yelled as hundreds of flaming rocks from space hit The Strahl and caused it to rapidly descend.
"Damnit. Do we have anything that we could us to distract it," Ashe asked.
"I have an idea," Penelo said as she finished healing Kairi.
"What is it Penelo?" Ashe asked.
"We wake this girl up and figure out why Zeromus was after her. If it was an item or something we could use it to distract Zeromus and then hit him where it hurts," Penelo said as she woke Kairi up.
"What? Where is Sora? Is he ok?" Kairi asked as she woke up dazed and confused over what had happened.
"None of us are Sora and we don't know a Sora. We need to ask you why Zeromus is after you. Otherwise we will die," Ashe asked.
"He... wants to kill me I think," Kairi said as she started remembering the events of the past few hours.
"Then there must be something else we can do other than throwing you at him to kill him," Vaan quickly said as he grabbed a sack full of items that they had gotten at their base and smiled.
"What do you have planned Vaan?" Penelo asked.
"Nothing good I suspect," Basch said as he looked at Vaan's face.
"Fly at Zeromus Balthier. At the last moment fly above it and I'll drop these on his face. This much power should either blow his head off or crack his skull open and knock him out," Vaan said with a malicious grin on his face.
"Kid that plan is bad but it is the only thing that might work on something like that right now," Balthier said as he turned The Strahl towards Zeromus and flew at him.
Vaan stood nearby the exit and tied a rope around his waist and a pole. He breathed slowly and noticed that Penelo, Ashe, Basch, and Fran were watching.
"I'm going to be ok. You guys just wait and I'll be back in a moment," Vaan said as he prepared to open the exit.
The four left as each had a different thought run through their heads. Ashe was afraid of losing her friend, Penelo was afraid of losing her love, Basch was feeling confident in Vaan's plan, and Fran was thinking that the plan would likely fail. Once they had gotten away Vaan opened the exit and saw he was close enough to throw the sack into Zeromus's eye.
Zeromus roared "You will die human."
"No. You will die for all the lost souls of Ivalice," Vaan said before throwing a sack into the eye of Zeromus.
The sack glowed for a moment before exploding into various elemental magical attacks and tore the side of Zeromus's head apart. Zeromus roared as it attacked with Meteor. The large burning rocks smashed into The Strahl. The Strahl shook and knocked Vaan everyone down. Zeromus reached his hand out and ripped a large gouge out of The Strahl. It started burning and losing altitude as various alarms screeched.
"Everyone get inside. Escape is still a viable option," Balthier said.
As they closed the exit Zeromus cast the spell Drain. It sucked out a large amount of Vaan's energy to fight and added it to his own. Zeromus roared as Vaan breathed heavily. Vaan knelt down and coughed up some blood.
"Vaan," Penelo yelled as she ran up to him and started healing him.
"All of you will die to my power," Zeromus roared as he glowed with power.
Balthier tried to fly The Strahl away from Zeromus yet was unable to escape Zeromus's ultimate attack.
"Big Bang!" Zeromus yelled as a large explosion erupted off of him.
The explosion hit The Strahl and disabled its core along with all the heroes magical protection. Fran ran towards the core and tried to reactivate it while Balthier tested the controls. Vaan, Penelo, and Ashe started casting Slow on the ship trying to make the upcoming crash cause less damage. Kairi thought for a moment as Basch transferred his magic into Vaan, Penelo, and Ashe. Kairi realized a way to save The Strahl. Kairi summoned her keyblade and charged all the magic she had into it. The keyblade glowed with holy power as Kairi held it up.
"I summon all my power into one point, grant my friends the power to stand against the darkness, Light's Blessing!" Kairi yelled as a white glow covered The Strahl.
The Strahl's engine turned back on as all the passengers on it were fully revitalized. This however made Kairi too weak to do anything other than fall to her knees and sweat from the effort at least for a few minutes. Zeromus roared in rage as he prepared another major attack. However Balthier turned the ship so that it could be facing Zeromus head on. Fran and the others except for Kairi ran into the cockpit and chanted a spell.
"Holy!" all six of them yelled as 6 different forms of holy light hit him. From Vaan a single small ball of white energy hit Zeromus in his wound and exploded outward causing further damage to his head. From Penelo a large orb hit Zeromus's back and vaporized parts of his back. From Ashe came 4 balls of energy smacked him multiple times in the chest until all coming together and exploding into a large flash of holy energy that fried Zeromus's chest. From Basch was a spear of light that impaled Zeromus's chest and extended outward and caused immense amount of pain to Zeromus. From Balthier was a single circle of energy that latched onto Zeromus's still functioning eye and vaporized it. Fran's contribution was four balls of energy that circled around him and blast into his torso and exploded outward cutting Zeromus in half.
"We were able to hurt him but are we sure he is dead," Ashe asked as Zeromus fell down and seemed to die.
The blue jewels over his body lost their color and Zeromus started twitching slightly. Balthier prepared to leave when the entire world of Spira shook with the roar of Zeromus. Everyone looked at each other and nodded in silent agreement. Kairi broke an ether cube the blue shards absorbed into her skin giving her the energy to stand up and be ready to fight. The Strahl descended and landed as they got out and prepared to kill Zeromus once and for all. Suddenly the mound of flesh that was Zeromus burst open and a large crab like creature walked out. The creature was Zeromus's ultimate form. The crab like creature didn't show off much of its body as it ran off so its shell could solidify. Before any of them could attack a portal into a starry void opened up and a figure dressed in elegant clothing walked out of it. Zeromus ran past the figure into the portal.
"You aren't getting away that easily," Vaan said as he charged at the portal. The figure in elegant clothing snapped his fingers causing the portal to close before Vaan could enter into it.
"You are not getting into there just yet Vaan," the figure said as it ran a hand through its long silver hair.
"Who are you?" Ashe said as she prepared for a possible fight.
"The name is Kuja. I am a part of a plan larger than anything you could possibly imagine. Have you ever wondered aloud to yourself why do items that revive the dead exist in such rare quantities and have rules attached to them that make no discernable sense. Of course you have. All little doves question themselves about life and death at some time or another," Kuja said as he looked at them.
Now would be the best time to explain Kuja's appearance and help give a picture on what he is. Kuja is a young man with long silver hair that reaches down to the middle of his back. He was wearing a large silver feather in his hair that was pointed towards the back of Kuja. He is a pale man standing at about 5'6'' with a light build. His eyes were a light blue that seemed to be looking through you. He wears white sleeves with purple shoulder areas connecting the two sleeves. That leaves his midriff exposed for all to see. He wears a white robe over the back of his legs that extend to his ankles. It is held up with 4 straps that attach at a codpiece in the front. The only other clothing items Kuja was wearing were black boots with golden buckles, and purple pants that reached about half way up his thighs.
"What are you talking about Kuja?" Basch said as he drew his great sword ready to fight.
Kuja laughed for a moment before saying "So the little mockingbird wishes to get some answers out of me even if it comes to violence. You are quite the rude one sir. I will explain all in due time and maybe if you listen closely you might just started singing a new song rather than the song of another. Now the only one of you we are wanting is the girl. The Princess of Heart from Radiant Garden: Kairi. Now Kairi we want you to be a dainty little flower and help us with a goal of ours. So come here and no one has to fight anymore today."
"Why do you want me anyway Kuja? To kill me? To unleash The Void on the universe? To hurt Sora?!" Kairi yelled in frustration.
"Oh the little flower isn't as delicate as they said. She seems more volatile than a normal person however. You really want to know what our plan is don't you?" Kuja asked as he started floating a foot off the ground.
"Yes that's exactly what I want to know," Kairi said as he anger was prepared to explode outwards in one rage filled beat down.
Kuja smiled and said "We wish to free you from the plans Inako has planned for all of us."
Author's Note: Cliffhanger. And yes this should all start making sense in the next chapter which will have an explanation on what the hell is going on and what is up with the story and hopefully learn who is the true villain here. Now please review and read the Unknowing Herald. He is the guy who has left me my first 9 reviews and is a great writer. Have a good night and sweet dreams.
Next Chapter: Revelations of the dark one.