Well. Lengthy waits between chapters now, it seems, while I put all my ideas in order. Anyway. Finally, you get to see a little about what's been happening. I've also started to add location tags, in order for you to see where things are happening. There will soon be a lot of different things happening in a lot of different places, and it's a little easier to keep up with everything this way.
Book I, Part I: Mortal Conflict - A Hero's Challenge
Chapter VII: Forsaken
--Celsius, Bridge--
"Any luck?" Yuna asks Shinra, who spins in his chair to face her.
"Nothing. I've searched through my entire database of fiends, but nothing I have even comes close to matching what you described."
"Where else might have information on these things?" I ask, looking around.
"Well...Nooj might know. Same with Baralai. Those are about the only two places I can think of," Paine replies. Sighing, I lean against the wall of the bridge, fingering one of the knives strapped to my forearms.
"Great. We don't know anything about them, and we barely have an idea of who might."
"Uh...guys?" Buddy asks warily from the front of the bridge. "I think you might want to see this..."
All of us move to the front of the bridge at that, turning our attention to the many spheres at the front.
"What is it?" Angel asks.
"Trouble," Buddy replies bluntly, pointing to one of the spheres. Looking over, we can see images of more of the same fiends from the stadium, leading an assault on Bevelle.
"No way!" I exclaim, stunned.
"It's not just Bevelle, either. What's left of the Crusaders are fighting these things at Macalania, and from what I can tell, the Calm Lands has pretty much been taken over."
"We've gotta try and help," Rikku says quickly, looking at the screen.
"If we're going to do this, we need to split up. We can't be everywhere at once, you know," Paine comments, and I nod.
"Angel and I could go to Bevelle, while the rest of you head to Macalania. We'll have the guards at Bevelle backing us up, and you'll have the Crusaders," I suggest.
"Sure you two can handle it?" Yuna asks, and Angel nods.
"We'll be fine. Just get to Macalania and help the Crusaders," he replies.
"Got it," Yuna replies, turning to Brother. "Brother! Let's go!"
"Come on, Angel," I say, stepping over and putting a hand on his shoulder. Calling up energies that I've not had the chance to try yet, a faint blue aura builds around me for a second, before the two of us simply vanish in a small flash of blue light.
--Bevelle, Highbridge--
An instant later, the two of us reappear on the Highbridge at Bevelle. The scene is one straight out of a horror movie. The strange fiends are everywhere, bashing Bevellian guards with clubs, maces, and warhammers, as well as their own spiked hands. The bodies of guards lie dead, littered around the Highbridge like fallen leaves. My blood begins to boil at the sight, but I force myself to keep my anger in check, slowly drawing one of my blades as Angel draws both of his.
"You want to take the palace, or should I?" I ask, looking over at Angel.
"Doesn't matter to me," he says.
"Fine. I'll go inside. Meet me inside when you're done, okay?"
"Got it."
"Good. Let's clean house," I say, charging into the storm of swords, guns, and bludgeoning weapons. Charging energy into my hand, I point it in front of me, intent on clearing a path.
"Firaga!"
The smaller, green colored Voidwalker in front of me simply disintegrates under the force of the spell, as Angel tears into a Deathbringer, dodging around the warhammer to stab it in the throat with both of his blades. A Bloodfiend tears a guard's arm completely off with one swing of a large sword, before being riddled with bullets by at least half a dozen other guards. Another guard goes flying by me, his entire torso crushed from the warhammer of a Deathbringer.
"Phase Shift!"
Moving quickly, I leap right through a Bloodfiend, my ethereal body passing through the fiend entirely as I continue to move, my body returning to the physical realm as I lash out at another Bloodfiend. My sword flies wide, missing the fiend entirely, but a salvo of bullets from a trio of guards turn the fiend's attention back to them, just before it explodes into black mist from the firing. Turning my focus to a duo of blue-colored Voidwalkers, I aim a Doublecasted Thundaga at them, the energy frying their ethereal bodies and causing them to sag, but not die.
"Kyuuten no Kanshiki!"
A shout from Angel gathers my attention for a moment as the same white portal he used back at the arena reappears, holy-based energy lancing out at a multitude of fiends as I approach the palace.
"Almost there..." I mutter, before screaming in pain as a wooden club comes out of nowhere and slams into my side, throwing me completely off my feet to roll across the ground. My vision swims with pain as I try to refocus my eyes, only to come face to face with a Deathbringer. Another swing goes barely evaded as I throw myself backwards, a large crack now in the ground from the impact of the large club. Quickly, I get my hand in front of me, firing off a Blizzaga that spears the creature, before a Flare from the same hand engulfs it a moment after. Seizing the moment, I cast a Curaga over my body, feeling the healing magic work its way over my midsection before I slowly stand up.
Without wasting any more time, I run towards the palace doors, yanking the heavy door open with one hand and spinning inside, the door shutting behind me. Gasping for breath, I place my left hand on my knee, hunching over and using my sword to stay upright as I catch my breath. Looking up again, I come face to face with at least a dozen Bevellian guards, all aiming rifles at me.
"Oh boy..."
--Macalania Forest--
"They just keep coming!" Yuna yells, blasting through another trio of Bloodfiends with her Great Whirl attack.
"Not much we can do about that right now!" Paine yells back, eviscerating a Deathbringer with a well-placed Fiers. An Elder Voidwalker looks over at Paine, beginning the casting of a spell, but a duo of missiles turn it into dust before it can finish, Rikku's grinning face appearing from the resulting smoke.
"Need a hand?" she asks innocently, causing Paine to smirk.
"Could ask you the same," she jokes, chuckling and turning back to the fight.
Nearby, Tidus and several of the Crusaders engage with a group of Bloodfiends and a Deathbringer, the blitzer charging straight into the middle of the enemies and cutting into the nearest Bloodfiend. Bringing his sword up, he tears through that enemy before spinning on another just in time to block the swing of a club. Several of the Crusaders begin to force the remaining Bloodfiends away with well-placed sword attacks, just before the Deathbringer slams its warhammer into the ground, bolts of lightning lancing out and striking everyone nearby. Two Crusaders fall, stunned by the lightning, and another falls dead as Tidus retaliates.
"Go back where you came from!" he yells, leaping into the air and raising his sword, energy gathering around it before he swings, bolts of energy from his Energy Rain Overdrive blasting out and exploding in the ranks of the fiends, decimating several instantly and gaining a roar of pain from the Deathbringer.
"Great Whirl!"
A salvo of energy blasts suddenly flies in, engulfing the Deathbringer in a cloud of smoke. When it clears, all that remains of the creature is some rapidly-disappearing mist.
"Thanks," Tidus says, turning to Yuna with a smile.
"No problem," she replies, as the two of them run back to the others.
--Bevelle, Highbridge--
"Lower your weapons. He's not one of them," the voice of Baralai says, stepping out from behind the guards.
"Good to see you're okay, Baralai," I say, breathing a mental sigh of relief.
"Yes, but I worry how long it will last," he replies, stepping over to me. "My guards have been holding those creatures off so far, but I'm not sure how long they can keep them at bay."
"We'll do all we can to help," I continue, "but I wish I knew what we were fighting. Any ideas?"
"Not at the moment," he answers, looking around. "Perhaps we could check some of the history books in the library?"
"This isn't exactly the time for a history lesson, Baralai," I retort, rolling my eyes somewhat.
"I was thinking that we may find something on these fiends in one of the books. After all, some of them date back even farther than Sin, you know. I've been looking through some of them, but I've found nothing so far."
"Good point," I concede, nodding. "Where's the library?"
"Follow me," he says, beginning to walk deeper into the palace. Quickly, I run after the Praetor, hoping to waste as little time as possible.
A minute later, the two of us enter a large room, bookshelves lining the entirety of the walls. My eyes widen at the sheer amount of books in the room, and I quickly turn to Baralai, who is walking towards one side of the room.
"You expect us to find something in all of these?" I say, gesturing around.
"Here," he says, pulling a book from one of the shelves and throwing it to me. Opening it up, I begin to skim through the pages, looking for anything that might help us.
"Reading, at a time like this?" a voice says from the door. Turning, I see Angel, somewhat cut but otherwise in good shape, leaning against the doorframe.
"You okay there?" I say, causing him to nod.
"I'm fine. They seem to have left for now," he says simply, walking inside.
"Think they'll be back?"
"Probably."
"Wonderful...how are the guards holding up?" I query, turning a few more pages in the book.
"A lot of them are injured, some of them dead...I don't think they'll be able to hold them back if they keep attacking like this for much longer," Angel comments.
"I think I've found something," Baralai says, interrupting our conversation.
"What is it?" I ask, Angel and I stepping over to where Baralai sits, a book opened in front of him.
"See for yourself," he says, pointing to the book.
Around 800 years ago, somewhere around the year 173 A.S., there existed a large castle on the open plains of the Calm Lands. The ruler was a king named Malak Agamand, who ruled most of the Calm Lands and what is now Macalania. His subjects admired him, as he was a fair king who upheld strict codes of honor for himself and those under his command. He even went so far as to offer his castle as a place of rest and recuperation for summoners and guardians on their travels.
Fiends such as the ones we know today were uncommon back then; in their place were vile creatures that later were dubbed the "Forsaken." These fiends preferred to keep to themselves, but were very territorial and would ferociously attack humans who mistakenly wandered into their lands.
The fiends themselves were also quite powerful, as there was one major difference between the Forsaken and normal fiends. While normal fiends were formed by the hate and anger of the dead, which is why people often returned to life as fiends, the Forsaken were different. They were formed from the very energy of death itself, making them difficult to kill with normal means. Magic seemed to be more effective against them than conventional weapons such as swords and maces, but some of the fiends proved resistant, even immune to magic.
Over the course of around 150 years, the Forsaken became numerous, as well as increasingly powerful and aggressive, some even leading open attacks on cities such as Guadosalam and Bevelle. Finally, in the year 349 A.S., Grand Maester Larian called a meeting of the Maesters of Yevon to decide a course of action to deal with the Forsaken. As the Forsaken could not be destroyed easily, and the Maesters could not risk sending most, if not all of their forces to carry out a potentially crippling operation, they elected instead to devise a way to seal the fiends away. This is where King Malak Agamand re-enters the picture.
The king's castle had been under siege by the Forsaken for several months prior to the council's decision, the unnatural fiends seeing the entirety of the Calm Lands as their territory. King Agamand's forces were able to hold the fiends at bay, but it was clear that the castle would soon fall. Therefore, King Agamand met with the Maesters, volunteering to use his castle as the place in which the Forsaken could be sealed. The Maesters accepted, and a group of the most powerful mages in Bevelle, along with nearly 500 Bevellian soldiers set out and forced most of the Forsaken back into the Calm Lands. The warriors pushed them back even farther, into King Agamand's castle, and all the doors were sealed and barred, reinforced by powerful binding spells from the mages. The castle was abandoned and forbidden to return to after that.
Several hundred years later, when the chasm in the Calm Lands was created from the fight between the Final Aeon of High Summoner Gandof and Sin, the great castle fell with it, land and castle all sinking into the large tear in the earth to rest at the bottom, tons of rock and rubble falling and burying the majority of the once-proud monument. To this day, the castle remains sealed and buried in the great chasm of the Calm Lands.
"Well...not anymore it isn't," I mutter, looking over at Baralai and Angel. "Wonder how they got free?"
"If I had to guess, I would say that it was simply a matter of time," Baralai says, looking up at me.
"What do you mean?" I ask, slightly confused by Baralai's remark.
"Binding spells may be powerful, but like any magic, the effects will fade away over time. Even if they used a thousand mages, the spells would eventually wear off. I believe that the binding spells simply wore off over the eight hundred or so years that these things have been sealed, and that they simply broke out of the castle once the spells had faded."
"Great. First Sin, then Vegnagun, now this. What's next..."
"We should let the others know about this," Angel says, interrupting my musing of a sort.
"Yeah," I agree, turning back to Baralai. "Do you think you can hold out here for a bit longer?"
"We should be able to," he replies. "You have a plan?"
"We find the castle, we go in, we kill whatever's leading these things. Simple enough in words, but you know what they say about the best laid plans," I explain.
"I see," Baralai says, standing up and stepping towards the door. "We'll hold them here as long as we can. Good luck."
"Thanks. We're gonna need it this time, I think," I reply, turning to Angel. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah," he says simply, and I nod, placing a hand on his shoulder, the two of us vanishing moments later.
--Macalania Forest--
Angel and I reappear a moment later near Lake Macalania, looking around at the once-pristine forest. Burned patches of ground and melted snow from magical attacks litter the area, as do corpses of Crusaders. The occasional tree has even been felled, lying along the ground like a fallen giant. Several yards away, Tidus, Yuna, Rikku, Paine, and a group of the Crusaders stand, apparently recuperating from the battle.
"Hey!" I yell, getting their attention. "You guys okay?"
"We're fine!" Yuna yells back, as we start to walk over to them. "How about you two?"
"Never better," I say, rolling my eyes somewhat. "I think we found something you guys might want to hear."
"Like?" Tidus prompts.
"What these things are, for starters," Angel cuts in, looking over at the four of them.
"Seriously?" Rikku asks, causing me to nod.
"Yeah. We found some information on them at Bevelle, in the palace library. Apparently, they're some kind of fiends called the Forsaken. They're not normal fiends by any means...really, if anything, they're undead. They're nothing but the energy of death. Anyway, there's a castle in the Calm Lands, down in the chasm. That should be where these things are coming from. We're gonna take out their leader."
"Good luck with that," one of the Crusaders says, apparently the captain or commander of the group. "They've taken over the entirety of the Calm Lands. You'll have a hard time getting in."
"Well, we can't just sit around and do nothing. I think if we all work together, we can make it to the chasm and hold them off there, while some of us go inside the castle and find whatever's controlling these things," I continue.
"Better than nothing," Paine says, folding her arms. "I say we do it."
"Sounds good," Yuna agrees, nodding.
"Guess it's settled, then," Angel chimes in, looking around.
"If these things are undead, holy magic might work better on them than regular magic. Can't say for sure, though. I'm just making guesses out of the blue here," I suggest.
"Can't hurt to try," Rikku says, shrugging.
"I think we should take some time to rest first," Angel interrupts, looking over the Crusaders before turning to the commander. "Your men don't exactly look like they're in the best fighting shape right now." Without a word, the commander nods, moving back and beginning to bark orders to his men.
"He's right. We could all use a little rest, if not but for a few minutes," I say, beginning to head towards the Celsius, which sits a few dozen yards away from all of us. Angel and the others follow a moment later, and I can see some of the Crusaders beginning to head our way as well as we step inside.
Well, the plot is beginning to thicken now. Which is good...very good...
I've had the idea of the Forsaken in my head for a while, and I'm actually still making subtle changes to it as I see fit, even as I'm writing this story. As always, please read and review!