Chapter 46 – Tearing with the Beast
Far from matching the pristine beauty of the Farplane, the face of Shuyin peered ghastly at Rikku. The ghostly presence haunting Baralai's body stood with a scrunched face, his eyes burning with raw fury. Gippal again attempted to run for him, but Nooj's cane halted his advance. Baralai raised his hands toward the sky. The ground once again began to quake, this time with the force of an explosion great enough to drop everybody to their knees. Behind Shuyin, a colossus of a beast burst from the ground. High into the air, it rose, with two, monstrous arms emanating from its body.
They almost appeared to be two separate beings, if only they were not tied to a central mass. The whole of the fiend dwarfed Rikku and her friends who watched this horrifying entity lift itself from the depths of the earth by Shuyin's command. Gippal, no longer able to be held back, scrambled for Shuyin. Sprinting at full speed, he pulled out his gun but aimed for a non-vital area on Baralai's body. Shuyin laughed, and backflipped high into the air, landing perfectly on the top of his raging fiend.
"Feel the wrath of Angra Mainyu!" he roared, pointing his finger justly at Gippal.
The hulking creature began to move, slowly animating to life. It roared terrifyingly, rearing its twin heads back. Rikku darted behind Paine, who gasped in fear at the towering fiend. The left head swooped its mighty hand down, nearly smashing the rolling Gippal with its immense force. The right head began charging magic—a bright red ball of light shined above its head.
"Everybody scatter!" commanded Nhadala.
Rikku ran as fast as she could with Paine over to an embankment and covered herself. Nooj and Nhadala hopped backward, standing behind a pillar where the temple and the Farplane connected. Blinded by rage, Gippal darted towards the beast. Rikku called out to him and watched as he slid right beneath the fiend, which would not fire upon itself. It launched its ball of fire and exploded a crater in the ground in front of itself. The burning temperatures charred the dirt around it.
Emerging from the sweltering blast, Gippal climbed the fiend while still focused solely on Shuyin. He dodged two attempts of the beast to swat him off. As he closed in on Shuyin, his foe leaped off.
"Face me you coward!" Gippal screamed.
Shuyin's disconnected voice laughed. "You think this will be an easy fight? If so, you are gravely mistaken!"
After Shuyin's dastardly shout, he dashed for the temple entrance. Nooj reached out to grapple him, the end of his cane inches away from Baralai's leg, but his body spun just out of reach. Like a spider, he climbed up the slide leading from the temple. Shuyin's ghostly voice trailed off.
"Rikku! Rikku, come here!"
She glared bewilderedly at Nooj and pointed to herself. "You want me?"
He nodded rapidly and motioned for her to come to him. "You are the only one dexterous enough to crawl back up the chute. We need you to delay Shuyin until we defeat this fiend."
Rikku hesitated to answer him, but then firmly nodded once. If they needed her to buy time, then that was what she would do. Unsure of Shuyin's full potential while possessing Baralai, Rikku hoped she would be enough. Into the dark canal, she climbed, although her body barely squeezed through the snug passageway. The cramped space made her squeal as she pressed herself up. Almost losing her balance, the temple quaked once more from the Mainyu's magical attack impacting the ground near the slide. Pushing off with both feet, she catapulted herself back up the slide enough to exit the Farplane.
An intense roar raged across the Farplane. Paine catapulted a series of black spheres at the fiend, causing it to recoil in pain. Paine trembled, weakened, and in pain from her attack. Nooj fired off his gun at the fiend but to little effect. Nhadala told him to stay back and motioned him behind her with her arm. There seemed nothing the two of them could do against the towering behemoth. Flanking it on either side, Paine and Gippal unloaded a magnitude of fury that matched the Angra Mainyu.
"Give me a distraction!" yelled Paine to Gippal.
He smirked. "Just like old times."
While Gippal kept it preoccupied with his gunshots, Paine attacked the right head, slashing with all her might The second head, protecting itself, cracked Paine back with its titanic hand. She drove shoulder-first into the ground. A cloud of dust raised by the impact shrouded her. Nhadala shrieked, and without thinking, bolted toward her. The right head charged an electrical attack and scorched a line of lightning directly in front of Nhadala. She barely stopped herself from being disintegrated as she dove out of its blast. Falling flat on her back, she let out a yelp of pain.
"Damn this fiend!" Gippal growled, shifting his direction toward where Paine had fallen.
He shifted around the long arm of the fiend. Distracted from Paine, the titan took the opportunity to bombard Gippal. With a series of swipes, it tried to cut Gippal down. He ducked one and tried to block the second as best as possible, but the force of its blow sent him spiraling back into the ground. A trail of uprooted grass and soil created a path to where he lay, unconscious and bleeding.
Nhadala ran with an unquenchable fury at the fiend, but was halted by a sudden voice, "Stop! Do not go near it!"
From the darkness of the twisting tunnel, Rikku finally ascended. She let out a huff as she lifted herself into the temple again. Turning around, she glimpsed the double stone doors hung wide open. She gasped to see that Shuyin had dissipated the seals so quickly. Carefully she tip-toed inside, peering into a gigantic circular room. The ceiling vaulted at least a hundred feet high, beyond the reach of the flickering torchlight illuminating the room below.
Searching beyond the walls she spotted Baralai. still festering with Shuyin's transparent form. He stood in front of an enormous granite altar. A radiating crimson light burst into her eyes, causing her to squint. In the center of that light hovered the translucent image of Vegnagun. Surely this must be the second spirit of Bevelle's ultimate machina of destruction, thought Rikku. Shuyin's hideous cackling cut through the silence of the horrifying sight.
"Soon, my dear Vegnagun, you will be complete. Time is short for this world. I will have my revenge!"
Rikku, with images of the past bubbling hellfire in her soul, leaped from the shadows, "No! I won't allow you to use Vegnagun!"
Realizing instantly her untimely haste, Rikku pointed her feet together and squeezed herself together in fear. Baralai turned around and gazed sharply at her.
"So, it's you again. Come to kill me? You don't have the power to stop me!" he barked.
Pointing straight at Rikku, Baralai marched forth, still gazing into Rikku's eyes. His sight penetrated so sharply, that it felt as if he attacked her very soul. Gritting her teeth, Rikku refused to let herself become fazed—Shuyin wasn't the only person in Spira to have felt pain. Gripping her fists together, she pulled out her twin blades. Charging at Baralai, Rikku swiped wildly at him. Nimbly he dodged them without much effort and countered with a fist to her ribs.
She bellowed, recoiling in pain. Rikku faked her stumble, and instead propelled herself at him, cutting into his ghostly form. Shuyin did not suffer injury, but instead the body of Baralai, which appeared in her eyes once Shuyin's transparent form disappeared. A deep slice bled real blood from his arm, causing Rikku to retreat backward. She gasped at what she had done.
"Is it possible for me to beat Shuyin without killing Baralai?" she asked herself.
Nhadala shot her eyes over to a hill behind the Angra Mainyu. Lenne stood tall, firmly facing the giant. Then she ran down towards it, firing off a quartet of bullets at it from two pistols she wielded in each of her hands. Capturing the attention of the fiend, it lashed out at her, both with fists and magic. Lenne's speed proved too great, as she ducked under and around both a blast of fire and a furious fist. She continued firing at the creature. Fist after fist planted craters into the ground, as a chain of misses rumbled the land of the Farplane. Paine began to pick herself off the ground, aroused by the sound of yelling and gunfire.
Looking bewildered at Lenne, Paine couldn't remember ever seeing her carry a gun. To her feet, Paine rose, but she still wobbled as she tried to step forward. Nhadala came over to her, stabilizing her shakey balance. Paine squinted her eyes, attempting to make out the blurry figures parading in front of her. She perceived the sounds of crashes and bangs.
"When did she—" Paine tried to mutter out.
A series of deafening shots rang out, and everyone looked over to see Gippal on the ground, emptying a clip of bullets of his own into the fiend. Though badly injured, he continued to fight. Paine regained her senses and readied her sword. A flame began to burn on the edge of her blade, glowing with orangish light to match the fire burning within her. In a burst of rage, she screamed at the top of her lungs, blitzing straight at Angra Mainyu. Spearing for the left head, the fiend deflected her blow, swatting her back with its massive arm. With a clamorous cry, Angra Mainyu lifted its giant fist high up in the air. Paine's eyes widened, watching helplessly as the fiend swung its fist straight down on her.
Diving to protect her friend, Lenne shoved her out of its reach just before impact. With his last ounce of strength, Gippal fired a full volley of bullets into the beast, causing it to cry out in pain. Partially striking Lenne, she bounced off the ground and rolled to a stop. She twitched as she tried to get up from the ground. Paine ran over to her.
"Lenne! Are you okay? Say something?"
Lenne only moaned lowly and put her hand on Paine's shoulder. Tears swelled up in Paine's eyes as nightmares of the past conjured themselves in her mind. In the distraction, Nhadala ran over to Gippal who lay barely conscious. She picked him up and took him back to the border between the Farplane and the temple. With strength seemingly coming from nowhere, Lenne stood up out of Paine's embrace.
She pointed back into the temple. "This thing is too strong for us to fight in the Farplane. We have to get out of here."
Led by Lenne, the group rushed inside the temple. Up the tunnel they climbed, eventually reaching the inside of the temple. They all fled outside, where Brother and Buddy waited impatiently.
"Here, take them!" shouted Paine, "I'm going back in for—"
A massive earthquake erupted from the ground. The Mainyu burst out from the sand and roared into the air, streaks of lightning shooting off of its body. The beast stomped its way out of the rubble it just created, and stood within feet of the Celsius.
Rikku skipped around, dodging every attempt from Baralai to attack her. She had to come up with a way to stop him without killing him. She had little time to think, as any misstep would spell her doom.
"Quite nimble for a little girl, but give up. You can never defeat me!" he barked in sick delight.
Sliding beneath a kick, Rikku answered, "You think you're the only one who feels pain?"
He stopped, the dust from the ground swirling in front of him. "Pain? A child like yourself could never understand what pain is!"
"Of course, I can! You aren't the only one who has lost someone you loved!"
They deadlocked into a stare, neither one of them blinking; neither one of them willing to waver. For what seemed like an eternity they paused, the dirt and sand floating around eventually falling to the ground.
"A thousand years of suffering is what I have endured. How could you possibly understand what that means?" Shuyin muttered.
Rikku shook her head. "Time doesn't matter! When I lost Yunie, I thought I lost my heart. She was my cousin and my best friend. I would have done anything for her. But in the end, I couldn't save her."
"At least you have memories fresh in your mind. My dear Lenne . . . she fades in and out. I can barely remember what she looks like. Her songs haunt me, even if I can hardly recall her voice."
Rubbing her eyes, Rikku replied, "Sometimes the memories fade. You know you remember them, but you can't quite picture them."
"And sometimes, none of it feels real," added Shuyin.
Rikku dipped her head. "No, it doesn't."
A cold silence fell between them. The pain of Shuyin's loss radiated like an aura from his spectral figure. Rikku watched his expression turn numb, his eyes wilting like a flower in the desert. For a moment, she could feel how afraid and empty he felt, and perhaps he felt the deepness of her sorrow as well. Like an icy wall barricaded between them, Shuyin and Rikku kept their gazes locked.
Rikku melted the silence. "For the thousand years you suffered, so did the rest of Spira. Because of Sin, so many people lost their loved ones. My people wandered across the world with nowhere to belong. Yuna had no parents because of Sin, yet she never sought revenge!"
"Then she was a better person than I," said Shuyin. "Because I will correct the mistakes of the past—both theirs and mine!"
The emotional link between the two snapped apart in an instant. Shuyin leaped at Rikku, and the fight ensued. She was no closer to saving Baralai, but Shuyin was no closer to unlocking the second spirit. Before she could devise a plan, a thundering crash rumbled, jolting Rikku to the ground.
"The Mainyu is unleashed! Your friends are dying. They don't have the means in which to stop my plan," he commented, mad laughter seething from his evil expression.
Anger flared on Rikku's face. She hatched a plan which would save Baralai and stop Vegnagun from achieving its most potent form. She pulled a rope from her pouch. It was short, but it would do the trick. She tied it into a loop and twirled it around in the air. With a flick of her wrist, she flung it at Baralai's body, but the loop brushed off him.
"Ha! A meager attempt like that will never stop me," he snickered.
Rikku just smiled. "Jokes on you! I didn't miss."
As soon as Rikku said those words, Barlalai began to wobble. His vision blurred, and he fell to his knees. Beginning to cough, Rikku watched his eyes droop and heard his voice weaken.
"What did you do . . ."
He crawled for a few steps, panting heavily with his head down. Pulling out a small needle stuck in Baralai's arm attached to the rope, Shuyin grimaced at Rikku before Baralai's body slumped to the ground. Shuyin's ego blinded him from Rikku's subterfuge. She let out a long sigh, relieved that she successfully held Shuyin off. Racing out of the room, she had to enact the second part of her plan before it was too late.
Outside the temple, Paine and Lenne continued their fight with the Angra Mainyu. They lured it away from the Celsius, which had just taken a blast of magic to its hull. Brother and Buddy dragged Gippal inside the ship to safety. Nooj and Nhadala followed close behind.
Paine attempted numerous times to engage it with her sword, but she could never get close enough. Urgency consumed her because she had no idea what Rikku's situation was against Shuyin. Becoming fatigued on top of her wounds, Paine hunched over. The monstrous fiend remained able to fight, still thirsting for more bloodshed.
Lenne refiled her pistols, and fired off two volleys at it, shooting with great precision at the head on the left side of the fiend. When one part became hurt, the other side stepped in to protect it. A bolt of electricity shot down at Paine, sending prickly jolts of electricity across her skin. Her jump backward saved her from most of the shock, but she couldn't move her left leg properly. She tried to create some distance between herself and the fiend, but her limp severely slowed her movement. Lenne ran over to cover her.
"Can you still walk?" Lenne asked, noticing immediately the limber stance of Paine.
"Yeah, I can still kick this thing's ass."
Lenne nodded, and sprinted to the back side of the monster, firing a shot over its head to attract attention away from Paine. Becoming highly agitated at the persistence of Lenne, it gargled, vibrating the ground with its pulsating growl. The unexpected boom shook her for a moment and left her vulnerable. Spinning around, it whipped its lumbering arm around, striking Lenne straight on. Flying into the air, she crashed to the ground, partially buried in the sand she collided with.
"Lenne!" screamed Paine, who hobbled over towards her.
Rising to her feet, Lenne stood hunched over. She holstered her pistols and slid her hand down into her suit, pulling out a necklace. Tied to the chain hung a tiny, blue sphere. She grasped it tightly in her hand and placed it over her heart. She took in a deep breath.
To the sky and heavens, Lenne called, "Please hear my call! Help me, Yojimbo!"
