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Post by Clive Rosfield on Jul 25, 2023 8:41:02 GMT -6
THE OUTLAW
He didn’t understand. Where was he?
He should be dead. He WAS dead. The curse had turned him to stone. He had felt it, all of it, that long and excruciatingly painful feeling of your flesh turning to stone, your insides being steadily destroyed by the curse until in and out, you become nothing but dust.
But here he was. Alive, and alone. His connection to all the Eikons but Ifrit and the Phoenix were gone, but he didn’t mind that. He never wanted those powers, they were either happy accidents or forced upon him for the most part. Except Jill. Even he wasn’t entirely sure why Jill did that and had mostly been making guesses since.
But this wasn’t an afterlife, either, despite his initial thoughts. The people here were bustling as though death had never claimed them, and this city was…
Brimming with magic. Crystals were being used everywhere by non-bearers, though he also saw many bearers working in shops and other areas as he walked through. The garb of many in this “Torensten” wasn’t too out of place from what he was used to, but seeing all these bearers working, for their masters most likely, all these crystal uses…
This wasn’t anywhere in Storm, nor the Twins, that was clear. Yet they lived as though the mothercrystals had never been destroyed.
That was when his questions reached a startling truth.
Torensten had a “core crystal”. A massive crystal inside the palace.
A mothercrystal.
So Ultima still had one more copy, residing in this place he had been sent. Still stealing aether, and spreading the blight while he prepared his spell. Even if he had no help and nobody had even heard of their exploits out here, not even knowing of Storm or the Twins, he needed to do what had to be done. It would be a shame to hurt the peace these people seemed to have, but it reminded him of Sabreque… And the false peace that its people felt. Clearly, this Torensten, ruled by this King Hremit, was no different.
Screams echoed from the palace in Torensten as people began to flee in droves. Smoke could be seen emanating from the palace for miles abound, until some of the palace servants came storming into the Wyvern’s Rest. They were frantic and panicking, and all came out speaking at once.
“Where’s Caius?!”
“The palace is under attack!”
“Some maniac is trying to destroy the Core Crystal!”
“He’s mowing down everyone in his path! He fights like a demon possessed!”
“Please! Somebody help us! The people there are in danger! The King is in danger!”
Upon arrival, the hero of the hour would find a trail of unconscious bodies from the palace entrance strewn all the way into the depths. From soldiers to local adventurers, they had been left alive, though many were bruised and burned.
Whoever had done this had no interest in taking lives at the moment. They clearly had a target in mind.
At this point Clive had fought his way into the core crystal’s sanctuary, where many attendants were working at. He didn't understand, how could they allow them to stay that close to the Mothercrystal for so long? While it was nowhere near the size of the ones in the Twins, which possibly explained how it had eluded his senses for this long, this much exposure would have surely turned them akashic by now.
"Stop, please! Why are you doing this?!" one cried out, though Clive brandished Gotterdammerung as he continued his slow march towards the mothercrystal.
"My apologies. This must be done" came an earnest reply. He did not take joy in the pain and suffering that would be inflicted by destroying the mothercrystal. He had seen it firsthand time and time again. But to save this world, to take Ultima out of the mothercrystal and put a final end to him for good, and the blight that came with his machinations... He had to do this. "You will never thank me for this. But you will be glad of it in time."
Before Clive could make that final charge forward, however, he was forced to dodge as magic was pelted at him on all sides by the attendants.
"You're... Bearers?"
Yet none of them had brands. He didn't understand how that could be possible. But any rational thought on the matter was overridden by a very familiar feeling...
"You've sent your Bearer slaves to die for you."
Unrelenting rage. Something felt as he surged backwards with Phoenix Shift to surprise a group of soldiers that came in from behind.
"Always the same."
These soldiers, while still alive, would be a little worse for wear in the ensuing onslaught compared to previously. The Bearers, even unmarked, were still slaves. Forced to remain where they would surely turn akashic, to protect a mothercrystal for their King.
No matter where he went, it was the same story all over again.
Final Fantasy VI
22
YEARS
Female
Complicated
Heterosexual
427 POSTS
Fin
Use your own eyes and see for yourself whose side I'm on!
[attr=class,bulk] After a long day of overseeing training regimens, helping Tomoe with the accounts, and worst of all dealing with Yuffie, Celes had finally allowed herself a break.
She sat sprawled out on the couch in the lobby, her head tilted back over the top cushions and her eyes closed. She had to hand it to Caius. Though his idea of installing those crystals of ice magic had originally made her uneasy (they reminded her far too much of magicite for her liking), they were something of a godsend in the long, hot, summer months of Torensten when she was exhausted and really only needed to rest. She was looking forward to time in her room later, perhaps with a half-decent book in her hand, and then a bath. A bath sounded heavenly around now, and nothing short of disaster would dissuade her from it.
The doors slammed open, startling her awake as she threw herself to her feet and reached for a sword at her hip that wasn’t there.
”The palace is under attack!”
”Some maniac is trying to destroy the Core Crystal!”
”He’s mowing down everyone in his path!”
”Please! Somebody help us! The people there are in danger! The King is in danger!”
Celes stared at them, wild-eyed and uncomprehending as adrenaline clouded her mind in time with the pounding of her heart. Then, slowly, what they said started to dawn on her, and her panic turned to a look of horror.
”Now?” she asked though that really wasn’t the problem, was it? No, the problem was the apparent maniac storming the Castle Argyle. A maniac that was apparently beyond the capacity of the entire castle guard. An outlander maniac most likely. Which meant that she was the best one equipped to handle the situation. ”Damn it all!”
Celes straightened, fixing the king’s messengers with a steely look. ”Tell them to evacuate who they can. Caius isn’t here right now, but I’ll handle this in his stead. The Dragonblades are coming.”
The messengers didn’t seem to know how to feel about that, but Celes was already storming off, throwing her usual yellow jacket to the side as she went to collect her armor and weaponry. In truth, she would have responded to this whether Caius was here or not, but she didn’t like going in without someone fighting by her side, be it Caius or Yuna or even Yuffie, damn her. But Caius was in Sonora and Yuna was in Provo and Yuffie was gods knew where at this hour and so it was only Celes, and Celes alone.
To stop a maniac hell-bent on the city’s destruction. Lucky her.
She changed quickly, attaching her pauldrons, bracers, and grieves with the expertise of a soldier before redoing her hair so as to keep it from her eyes and grabbing her sword from the wall. Hopefully, her swordsmanship would be enough to match a swordsman’s own. And if it was mage which awaited her then perhaps she would simply absorb all of their spells with her runic blade until they grew tired and went home.
It was an idea, at least.
It didn’t take long for her to find the source of the problem. Even if the messengers hadn’t directed her to the palace, she would have known exactly where to go from the fire and screaming. She sprinted towards it in her now more practical boots, pushing through the fleeing crowds to approach the gates rather than leaving them. She only needed to identify herself as a Dragonblade before being bid to enter and to hurry at that.
The path ahead was strewn with blood and wounded men.
Her heart ached as she rushed past them, taking the stone stairs to the crystal chamber two at a time. It was usually her on rescue duty. It usually her magic stabilizing the fallen and helping them evacuate on their own. She wanted to help. It felt callous simply leaving them, but she had to trust that any remaining soldiers would collect them and take them somewhere safer, preferably with medical care. Because this time, at this hour, there was no one left to put an end to this madness, and as she burst into the Core Crystal’s chamber, Celes was well and truly alone.
She saw the soldiers first, wounded, bleeding, collapsed, and burnt upon the floor. The crystal’s light bathed them in an eerie blue which flickered ominously as a shadow passed in front of the source. It was the shadow of a man, and while she could at first see him only in silhouette, she knew immediately that he was the one she was after.
”Stop where you are!” Celes pulled her sword, readying her stance as she did so. Her voice was cold as ice. ”The city’s suffered enough without you!”
Post by Clive Rosfield on Jul 26, 2023 10:42:44 GMT -6
THE OUTLAW
Perhaps if he'd been less angry, Clive would have stopped to ask why these Bearers weren't branded. But right now, it didn't matter. With the soldiers down and out, he had been about to go for ranged attacks to stop the Bearers when another would step into the room. With a voice as cold as ice, and a set of armor that reminded him of what the one would expect from Sanbreque's top empirical lapdogs, and how arrogant and sure of herself she seemed to be, the easy conclusion to make was that this was one of Torensten's military generals. Her posture was powerful and confident, and she seemed foolhardy enough to think that she could take down any threat.
In a way, she reminded him a bit of Jill. It didn't matter the threat that was in front of her, she kept cold, calm and collected. No matter how often Jill was outclassed by other Dominants, she fought for what she believed in without a second thought. She kept a powerful presence through it all, never backing down.
But Jill's icy façade was just that. Deep down, she was the biggest sweetheart in the Twins. This general? He doubted it. It took a sorry person to approve of enslaving Bearers as these people had, making them fight and serve as distractions to be mowed down before them. Clive's only surprise was that she hadn't waited for him to cut down the Bearers before she made her appearance. Perhaps she thought she would have an advantage if he was outnumbered?
Better yet, "the city's suffered enough without you, she said. The smallest of spitefully amused smirks crossed Clive's expression as he turned to face her. The only way he was getting to the Mothercrystal was through her, it seemed, but her words were almost morbidly funny to him. How many times had he heard those same sorts of lines now? How many from Sanbreque, Dhalmekia, Waloed, how often had they told him that he was a criminal, a monster, a freak? And that they would save their people, the same ones that they enslaved and treated like dirt, from him?
More than he could count, he was sure.
"That would be a fine speech, if you weren't sending Bearer slaves to die for you" Clive sniped back, calm, yet barely harboring that long-seated rage under the surface. "People like you, who look down on the rest of us, know nothing of suffering."
Clive didn't wait for her to throw the first attack, disappearing and re-appearing before her, only a trail of flames at top speed showing where he was going. A large, flaming phoenix wing would be summoned and slammed towards her in hopes of stunning the general.
Final Fantasy VI
22
YEARS
Female
Complicated
Heterosexual
427 POSTS
Fin
Use your own eyes and see for yourself whose side I'm on!
[attr=class,bulk] The apparent maniac turned to face her, and in the dim light she could make out a few features. His messy dark hair and scruffy beard. His cape fastened over a bare chest practically bulging from a laced leather shirt. And the sword. He had had a sword, and a rather large one at that. Just her luck.
His voice was low yet burned with hatred. It set the hair on the back of her neck on end even as she couldn’t help an incredulous look at the actual words he said.
”What?” was all she managed before he was upon her. He didn’t rush towards her blade, but rather disappeared in a flash of fire, his sword swinging as he launched himself forward.
It was only instinct that saved her. She managed to raise her sword just in time to block his as the full force of him bore down on her and she grunted with the effort of holding him back. It didn’t work. While she managed to keep her own blade against his, his strength and whatever magic had propelled him forced her back by about a foot, teeth grit as she kept her balance and her stance, but only just barely. A swordsman and a magic user then.
Damn it all!
She glared up at him, towering over her in height with an advantage in strength and speed that seemed almost unfair. As thought combat were ever fair. And what was it that she always told her recruits, again?
That raw strength didn’t matter. Neither did confidence or the size of your blade. It was all in how you used it.
She slipped her blade from his, ducking as she did so and taking several steps aside, spinning around to face him again as she tried to place herself between him and the horrified mages who had been attending the crystal. She glanced at them and gestured curtly towards the door with a short nod of her head. ”Go!”
She knew how to handle civilians in a disaster area. When in shock, a particularly authoritative command was all it took to break through it, and in this case, the mages took no time in running. Part of Celes wondered if that had truly been her best idea. The mages of Torensten weren’t exactly weak by any stretch of the word, and they could have provided her the very back-up she so desperately needed, but as she paced to keep herself between them and the maniacal, magic-wielding swordsman in front of her, she knew it was the right call. The mages might have known their way around spells, but they weren’t exactly warriors. Her life, with everything she’d done with it, meant a lot less than theirs. ”I’ll take care of this.”
How did she plan to do that? A fine question when she was on her own against a behemoth of a man who could close the distance between them in an instant. Perhaps he had integrated his magic into his swordplay, but she needed a moment of concentration. And all her real power was in her magic.
”Look down on the rest of you?” she asked as the last of the mages left the room and the door closed behind them. She didn’t need to make sense. She didn’t need to make logical choices, even, so long as she could keep his eyes on her. Not the mages. Not the desperately wounded soldiers. Not the Core Crystal. Only on her. ”I don’t know what ‘rest of them’ you’re talking about, but you’re right in one thing. After seeing what you did to the men outside, I certainly look down on you!”
Post by Clive Rosfield on Jul 26, 2023 14:28:44 GMT -6
THE OUTLAW
“Go!” she cried as she bade the bearers flee. And the bearers did just that. To prepare a weapon, perhaps? No, he could see by their body language that they were fleeing in full and had no intentions of returning. The general claimed that she would ‘take care of this’. The doors closed, as even though he had clearly noticed them, Clive allowed them to leave unimpeded. He had no reason to kill bearers. They were only doing what they were made to do.
But this girl. What was she playing at?
But her self-righteous rhetoric, the kind he’d heard over and over, pissed him off. He took the initiative with the offense once more, aiming to batter her blade out of her hands with a series of powerful blows, looking for an opening to harness the Ifrit’s power.
“What I did? What about what -you- do?” The once-Lord Marquess snarled between blows. “This kingdom, like all the rest, enslave Bearers only for being born with a gift! Your leaders pretend to have brought peace, while stamping down everyone else at the soles of your boots! And lapdogs like you are perfectly happy to do the stomping.”
And the opportunity came. The first chance he got, Clive would make some distance and begin charging a large fireball to aim at the Core Crystal. With its size, he might be able to at least weaken it to prepare for the final blow…
“I can’t change that myself. But by stopping the Blight…”
That was what this was all about. Stopping the Blight, killing Ultima for good…
“… I can give the world the time it needs.”
He opened fire, one large charge of fire and then a series of smaller ones, aimed over Celes and at the Core Crystal.
Final Fantasy VI
22
YEARS
Female
Complicated
Heterosexual
427 POSTS
Fin
Use your own eyes and see for yourself whose side I'm on!
[attr=class,bulk] If she had hoped to grab the man’s attention then her plan had worked. It had worked a little too well one might say.
”Ugh!” Celes gritted her teeth, bracing herself as he threw himself and that sword into a full on assault, eyes blazing with rage. From his words, she could only imagine that he was either deeply confused or deeply disturbed – possibly both though it wasn’t as though she really had the chance to listen. It was all she could do to stand her ground as he struck her blade again and again with enough force to cause a shockwave of pain up her arms and into her clenched jaw.
Why didn’t she have back-up? Caius, Yuna, Terra, Yuffie. There were at least half a dozen Dragonblades she would have trusted with this kind of task, and yet on the night that it came, they were all missing. If Yuna or Terra had been at her side, she could have taken risks knowing that someone could heal her as she gave them opportunities to strike with their magic. If it had been one of the others then she could have taken that role, slinging spells from a distance and healing them both when necessary.
But no. She just had to come alone. Where she was weakest. Where this deranged embodiment of misplaced fury wouldn’t give her a single chance to do anything but keep him from taking her head.
It was all she could do to hiss between her teeth, one parry at a time. ”I. Don’t. Know. What. You’re. Talking about!”
Yes, that would clearly get through to him.
Finally, his strength overwhelmed her. She took one blow too many, and she felt her strength give under the weight of his sword, lowering her blade and leaving her open for attack. She felt her eyes widen as she attempted to back away though she knew it wouldn’t be enough – not from a sword like that and not when he had the power to warp straight towards her. She expected the blow to come. She expected him to stab her straight through, but he didn’t take the chance. Instead he was the one to back away. She saw fire gathering at the palm of his hand in a great spherical projectile.
Once more, she acted on instinct. Once more, she took a risk. She raised her sword, but this time not defensively. Instead, she activated its runic abilities and thrust it over her head.
The projectile fired. She felt its heat racing towards her, towards the crystal, while a few of the the weaker spells found their mark, the larger of them and several others were drawn almost magnetically into her blade.
Its power traveled down her sword, into her fingertips, into her blood. She felt its warmth mixing almost unbearably with her own icy power, bolstering it as her eyes fixed determinedly upon him and she shoved her hands together as though in prayer, her sword grasped tightly between her fingers as she muttered the words of her spell.
This was the opportunity she needed. He was at a distance. A distance he could close in an instant, but she wouldn’t need longer than that.
”Blizzaga!” She raised her hand and the air chilled and cracked around her as she directed her spell directly at him in a series of icicles that erupted like towering stalagmites along the floor, each of them piercing upwards and then shattering in turn, freezing everything they touched as they burst into icy shrapnel.
Celes stood, panting, trying to ignore the ache in her arms from where she’d contended with his blows. He wasn’t the only one with a few surprises up his sleeves.
Post by Clive Rosfield on Jul 27, 2023 9:30:59 GMT -6
THE OUTLAW
She claimed to not know what he was talking about. Of course not. Why would she? Nobody thought about the plight of the bearers. They used them as slaves without a second thought. Used the aether from the mothercrystals without a second thought. Relied on them, and misused Bearers until they were quite literally nothing but dust. They didn’t care. They never cared. To everyone, from civilians to soldiers to the higher ups, bearers were less than human. Bearers and magic were just tools. And for the higher ups? Tools to be used to trample on everyone else as they made war while sitting comfortably as they looked down on everyone else.
It was a world he had lived with, naively been a part of without doing anything for so long. But no more. Taking out the mother crystals would end the blight and end their reliance on magic with it. No more would bearers be tools for war, slaves to fulfill functions that could no longer feasibly be done even with them. It would take time, and many would suffer until then, but…
Ending the blight would give them a chance they wouldn’t get otherwise. And somebody had to do it.
Clive had found his opportunity, but while he did a little bit of damage, the rest had been absorbed by his opponent. And if this crystal was anything like other crystals, it would heal from the damage before long. Which meant if she could absorb magic…
She who could…
“You’re a Bearer.”
Clive was stunned into inaction. “So that’s why you sent them away. You’re as much of a slave as they are-“
“Blizzaga!”
This part of the chamber was too small, and Clive couldn’t dodge with that little warning. He was hit dead on and sent flying back. As he hit the wall he watched his limbs freezing over until he was completely encased in ice.
Like turning to stone. Watching yourself be rendered immobile, painfully piece by piece. A morbidly familiar feeling. One he had never wanted to experience again, and yet…
——
Elsewhere in Torensten, a garbage can was knocked over amidst the crowds fleeing the palace. And for one creature; this was an opportunity. Once, they had already tried to grab the scraps of chicken hanging from the container, but they had been shooed away by the homeowners. Now, as they were distracted by some kind of commotion, a very large canine, covered in dirt to the point one could hardly even recognize what they were, slank from the shadows.
Within moments, the famished canine had finally devoured what it had sought all day. All that time looking for an opportunity, in order to eat just to survive. It wasn’t anywhere near enough to fill them, but it would keep them alive another day.
Up above, an explosion of ice came through one of the windows of the palace, engulfing the exterior near to the window where the massive icy blast had finally stopped after engulfing its target. While the dog’s attention was caught by it momentarily, a familiar feeling kept them from just outright dismissing it… One that elicited a bark as they began to make a mad dash for the palace.
——
Celes didn’t get to celebrate for long, fire began to rage violently within the ice, before the room was engulfed in flames. The ice shattered, and Clive stepped out looking less like a man, and more one crossed with a monster wreathed in flames.
Truthfully, he had attempted to prime, but it was as if Ifrit wasn’t there. The connection was there in some way, but… Also not. As if what he had was merely a memento of what once was. Was this how it had felt for so many others when he had taken their power?
For now, however, being able to semi prime would do. What was clear was that this was an extremely powerful bearer… Perhaps even a dominant. It was clear there were more than just the ones told, and Leviathan may very well still be out there. This woman, however… Was it possible that she was a second Dominant Of Ice?
It wasn’t impossible. Ifrit’s very existence proved that.
“I have no quarrel with other Bearers. But I need to destroy that Mothercrystal” Clive spoke out, still trying to catch his breath as the ice melted away under the overwhelming heat of the flames. “This is a long shot and I don’t expect you to believe a thing. But the Mothercrystals caused the blight in the Twins. They were designed by a creature called Ultima, and they are sapping the aether from the air for Ultima’s purposes. If I can destroy this one final Mothercrystal, and destroy Ultima for good… The blight ends before it can take this city as it has so many others.”
This was stupid. Why did he feel the need to appeal to her? It wasn’t going to work. He began quickly making his way towards the Core Crystal again. He needed to make this fast…
“Even if you don’t believe me, then at least flee so you may be spared. You don’t have to die for your masters! Too many bearers have died for them already!”
He was starting to sound like Cid, he realized. So passionate about the plight of Bearers… So unwilling to kill them if he could help it.
How different had he become from the man that had slain Tiamet all those years ago, without a second thought?
Final Fantasy VI
22
YEARS
Female
Complicated
Heterosexual
427 POSTS
Fin
Use your own eyes and see for yourself whose side I'm on!
[attr=class,bulk] Celes wasn’t stupid enough to think that the fight was over. Not with a man like that, but she at least thought, as she watched him freeze into a glacial prison adhered to the stone wall, eyes widening with panic, that she might have a moment to breathe.
That was, unfortunately for her and all of Torensten, not the case.
No sooner had her ice taken its hold before it shattered again. Not in the way that it was supposed to shatter, but in a way that made it lose its hold entirely and send sizzling droplets of water through the air like mist. Celes stared at the blazing inferno that had replaced the man in front of her and she stumbled back, shoving her hands together and through her incantation in a desperate attempt to cast again.
But it was too late, and she knew it.
The thing that approached her looked a bit like the swordsman she’d locked in ice, but looked quite a bit more like a demon, or maybe an esper. Fire cracked in seams along his skin, highlighted his hair, burst from the almost reptilian plating that encased his arms, and his eyes, burning before in hatred, now burned a deep, unnerving blue. Every part of her was screaming to run away, but perhaps it was because she knew of the espers, she knew of Terra, and she knew the nature of magic that she stayed put, even as he spoke with a voice that sounded as though it had been scraped against a pit of jagged embers.
He wasn’t talking quite the same as before. Something about Celes’ magic had changed that.
Where before he’d done nothing but shout nonsense accusations, now he seemed to almost…pity her? It was still all nonsense, of course, but her “nonsense to reality” translation skills were working as well as usual, she could at least gather that much. It would have been even easier to understand him if it hadn’t sounded like his own larynx had caught fire, but it also sounded as though he thought he was somehow doing good.
And here he was. Striding confidently towards her (or rather, striding towards the crystal), practically bleeding magic in what she could only assume was something like Terra’s trance. She could hardly fend him off before, and now? Well, he’d shrugged off her best magic as though it hadn’t been cast and now he was on fire.
She didn’t stand a chance. Not alone, at least, and while she would have told any one of her recruits, friends, or allies to prioritize her own survival and flee while she had the chance, she did something else entirely.
Something that was very stupid and perhaps more than a little suicidal.
”Stop!” Adrenaline thrust her forwards, not stopping to think for a moment as she thrust herself between him and the crystal, arms outstretched and entirely defenseless. ”You’re not where you think you are!”
She was almost glad for the hammering of her own heart in her ears because it didn’t give her a chance to consider just how much of an absolute monumental idiot she was being.
”No one’s coming!” she said, panting, almost stumbling over the words. ”No one’s coming! We have time! So just listen to me!”
Excellent, a small, almost insignificant part of her brain told her. Tell the demon man with a five foot sword that you don’t have any back-up. A brilliant plan, that!
”If you try to cast, I’ll just negate it again, and I don’t think you want to kill me! So just. Listen!” She bit her tongue, wondering if instinct would tell her what to say again because she certainly couldn’t think straight enough to come up with a plan. Thankfully, it did. ”Nothing is what you think it is! You’re confused! If you still want to destroy that crystal then fine! It doesn’t mean anything to me! But first, let’s just talk, alright? Because you’re about to make a terrible mistake, and it’s going to hurt people!”
Post by Clive Rosfield on Jul 27, 2023 15:56:34 GMT -6
THE OUTLAW
Of course she didn’t understand, why would she? Even as a bearer, all this talk of crystals causing the blight and Ultima, most whom had enjoyed the crystal’s comforts all their lives would find the notion ridiculous. They didn’t because they had followed Cid, and they had seen Ultima for themselves. The others who hadn’t seen… Well, returning without Cid was enough for them.
But while he was putting on a brave face, Clive knew that he couldn’t take another shot like that point blank. But if he could just take out the Mothercrystal, kill Ultima… She could kill him if she still wanted to, he supposed. Another shot like that in a rage after he had destroyed the crystal, would probably do it. Clive was reckless, but not stupid. He still hadn’t fully recovered from fighting Ultima, he couldn’t prime, and he’d just taken very powerful magic point blank.
But so long as he slew Ultima, it was fine. He was meant to die destroying Origin. He could live with that. In the end, he would die on his own terms.
”You’re not where you think you are!”
She had decided to shield the crystal with her body. What did she mean by that?
No one’s coming, she said. Was this a trick? It seemed like one that many of his former enemies would pull. She claimed he could destroy it after, that it meant nothing to her. But somehow he doubted that.
“Because you’re about to make a terrible mistake, and it’s going to hurt people!”
“You think I don’t know that!?”
It’d just slipped out. It hadn’t been that long since he had awoken here. Finding out that his mission wasn’t over, that mothercrystals still remained, that nothing had changed… And this time he was alone, far away, with the people he loved being founder knows where. If Joshua was even alive, or if he had simply dreamed that he could sense his pulse…
It was a lot for someone who had already spent years trying to bear the world on his shoulders by himself. Even if he had help, in the end the big fights had always been up to him. Defeating Ultima… Had ended up being his responsibility alone.
Unconsciously, he found himself deactivating the semi prime. He couldn’t hold it for long and needed to save his strength. Especially after taking blizzaga full on.
“I… Know what I’m doing is going to hurt people. I know that. As much as people say so, I don’t enjoy making people’s lives worse in hopes of building something better” he found himself admitting. Why? Why was he doing this? If she was this desperate, he had her on the ropes. Victory was in front of him, Ultima was right there! Everything that Cid had ever dreamed of, everything that Joshua had died for them to achieve, was right there!
“But if I don’t kill the thing that’s in there. A lot more people are going to die. And I refuse to let Cid’s dream die, or let my brother’s death be for nothing. They’re counting on me to finish this!”
Was he trying to convince her, or convince himself?
Why was he hesitating? He had never found anything wrong with being the villain before. He had resigned to that fate for the good of everyone else. Destroyed any chance he had of rebuilding the life he had lost, to give everyone else a chance, even if they would never thank him for it.
But this time, something seemed wrong. Why didn’t she have a brand? Why didn’t the others? Where even was this Torensten? He’d never heard of it. Everything was so confusing, and now, when she said what she did…
He knew he’d regret this. If he didn’t act now, he might not get another chance for some time. They would know he was coming next time. And all the time that he wasted, what was left of Ultima was…
“Damnit…”
She was a bearer. She shouldn’t care about any of this. Defending her master’s crystal with her life, of her own volition, with nobody watching. She could run, and while she may be punished, it couldn’t be any worse than dying here.
Something was wrong. He didn’t know how to explain it, but he knew. Why couldn’t he feel Ifrit? Before, he had assumed it was because of what he had done back in Origin. But now…
Finally, with a low, resigned growl, he spoke once more.
“… Speak quickly. If I am not where I think I am, then where am I?”
Final Fantasy VI
22
YEARS
Female
Complicated
Heterosexual
427 POSTS
Fin
Use your own eyes and see for yourself whose side I'm on!
[attr=class,bulk] Celes had many thoughts as the man stared her down with his piercing blue eyes, practically glowing with magic. Most of them were a series of curses that would have made a sailor blush. Another was her own imagination, unhelpfully envisioning what it would feel like to be skewered by that sword. The last came with a wince as the man yelled back at her in that tortured, fiery voice that made her half expect that smoke would come billowing from his mouth.
”You think I don’t know that?!”
There was something here below the surface. Something that she didn’t and couldn’t understand. Celes had no idea if this was a good man lost in his own confusion and delusions or a murderer who merely thought he was doing good as he cut down every innocent in the path to his goals. That distinction mattered greatly while she was defenseless before him. She had faced many of the latter, and they were often irredeemable. It was a rare day that she faced the first.
But still, he stayed his hand and she remained thoroughly unskewered so that was a start at least.
And then the fires faded, and the demon of a man melted back into his usual form. A good sign. For her, at least.
It made his next speech easier to understand, now that she was speaking with the voice of a man rather than an esper. She had no idea what he meant, not really, but the tone of it all made her hope beyond hope that there was a chance to dissuade him without any further bloodshed. She didn’t think she could parry many more blows from his sword. From the ache in her wrist, she wondered if it was sprained.
After a long, tense moment, the man cursed and lowered his sword. Celes breathed a breath of relief.
This wasn’t over. It wasn’t even close. But if he could get through to him…
Oh gods, it was all up to her improvised speaking skills. Perhaps the crystal was doomed after all.
”You’re on Zephon,” she said, speaking quickly as he demanded. She was still out of breath from what must have been the worst strength training in her life, blocking his sword against hers. It didn’t help matters. ”It’s a different world from what you know. Wherever you were, however you get here, it doesn’t matter now. The rules are different here. Everything is different.”
She found herself reflecting the same kind of apparent nonsense that the swordsman had spewed at her in his attempted explanation of his mission. She didn’t expect him to believe it. But she had to try.
”I’m the same. I ended up here without any idea how it happened and everything I knew, everything I’d always known was different. I was a war orphan. Experimented on by the Geystahlian empire with magic extracted from espers. I eventually joined the Returners to put a stop to them until the emperor went to the Floating Continent, the goddess statues were set off-balance, and the entire world was destroyed and ruled by a mad god armed with his Ray of Judgement.” She said it all in one breath, the words practically tripping over each other. She paused to breathe again then raised her head and gave him a look of defiance.
”Do I expect you to understand any of that? No! But that’s what you sound like to me! I don’t know the words you are saying! And I’m not a slave! I don’t even work for the king! I run a small business down the road where we train mercenaries for the protection of the people! Those men in here? They weren't slaves either! They’re highly respected mages who make more money than I do though quite frankly I think I should earn more for being on call for bullshit like this!”
Her own simmering rage burned over the adrenaline that came from risking her life so stupidly. Her own frustration was a force all its own even in the face of quite possible imminent death.
”I should be at home reading a book, taking a bath, finally relaxing after a long day dealing with attitude from men with swords smaller than their egos! And then I get a sudden call that some maniac is storming the castle! You and I are stronger than almost anyone who lives here! That’s why no one is coming! Because people like us are stronger than they are, and for the life of me, I have no idea where the others I usually work with have gone at this hour. If any of the king’s usual guard came then they’d end up like those poor souls over there!” She gestured at the soldiers who were still profusely bleeding, crumpled near a wall. Bleeding meant they weren’t dead yet. Not that her magic could cure everything if this didn’t finish quickly.
”Whether you shatter this crystal or not, I’ll have a long night ahead of me trying to heal everyone you nearly killed! And even I can’t bring back the dead.” She scowled. That brief flash of anger was fading again and slowly, ever so slowly, she lowered her arms. ”Destroy the crystal if you want. I don’t even know what it does quite honestly, but I have the feeling it will set the city back terribly and make it a sitting duck for invasion and might be quite the bitch to replace. This city has already suffered attacks from demons trampling a third of it with fires and then there was the time it was flooded so terribly by a sea monster that the docks were swept away, the levee broke, and countless people drowned. Then there’s all the times it’s had to deal with people like you. Who come here either seeking a fight because they’re bored and bloodthirsty or because they’re terribly confused.”
She shook her head. ”If it's all fine and dandy with you to add to their struggles and provoke Sonora to war then fine. Do it if it will make you feel better. But this world and everything in it operates on different rules than you know. Maybe you’re right. You’re almost certainly not. Are you willing to take that chance?”
