Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Crystal Dreams ❯ Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Slowly approaching the submerged door, Serin and his comrades took up positions to the sides, while Sephiroth prepared to fling the door open. As he touched the handle, the warrior suddenly jerked his hand back, an expression of pain on his face.

Endymion grabbed his hand, and quickly looked it over, but stopped when he heard a voice in his head.

'It's okay. It's just so damn cold.'

Nodding, the king released his hand, and Sephiroth pulled down the sleeve of his trench coat, covering his hand as he again grasped the handle. With a quick jerk, Sephiroth opened the door, and the group swam inside...promptly falling flat on their faces.

Everyone attempted to get off of everyone at the same time, which, for a while, only succeeded in making things worse. After a few minutes, though, the group managed to untangle themselves from each other, and gazed around at the inside of the Senate Hall.

The first thing everyone noticed was that the interior of the building was completely devoid of water. Though most people would have pointed out that it was most likely because the building was watertight, there were several open windows where the water stayed where it was...almost as if there was an invisible barrier holding it back.

Though they were initially caught off guard, Endymion, Serin, Jupiter, and Sephiroth quickly recovered, and immediately assessed the area for any threats as they cautiously pulled off their rebreathers. It only took them moments to come up empty.

"Well, I don't know whether to be relieved, or apprehensive," Sephiroth commented. Serin snorted good-naturedly, and replied, "I'd say be apprehensive. Chances are good that whoever's expecting us is keeping all of his forces on the upper levels."

Sephiroth shifted his gaze to the swordsman for a brief moment, then stated, "I was being sarcastic. But I can see that you may not have much of a humor in situations like this."

Serin replied with a universal gesture good-naturedly, and turned his attention to the king, asking, "Highness, was it like this when you came in?"

Endymion shrugged at that, his expression one of complete bewilderment. "I didn't even get a chance to go inside, so I wouldn't know. I think it's safe to say that whoever did this has very powerful control over water." His expression hardened. "Of course, that doesn't mean I'm changing my mind."

At this, he turned his gaze to his comrades, and started heading for a pair of doors marked 'Stairs'. Shrugging, the others hurried after him, just in time to see four 'water tornadoes' crash through the stairwell doors, and attack.

Though it must have been years since Endymion saw any real action, his reflexes were more than equal to the task. Leaping to the side and flicking his wrist simultaneously, four roses embedded themselves in the liquid forms, which succeeded in stunning them briefly.

Serin and Jupiter were quick to follow up on this opportunity by a powerful sword strike, and a Supreme Thunder, respectively. Sephiroth, in the meantime, simply gestured as one of the orbs in his sword hilt glowed, and several bolts of lightning struck the remaining two, easily disintegrating them.

Endymion climbed to his feet once he was sure the danger was past, though everyone noted he still carried a rose in his hand, should he need it. Peering cautiously around the corner, he nodded upon seeing nothing, then turned to Sephiroth.

"That's an interesting form of magic. Where did you learn it?"

Sephiroth looked down at his sword, and shrugged. "Actually...I've always had this ability. It's just..." Shaking his head, the swordsman muttered, "I...I don't remember..."

Frowning, but not wishing to pursue the matter, Endymion simply nodded, and led the way up the stairs.

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About half an hour and fifteen more waterspouts later, the party reached the final level. Cautiously opening the door, an initial glance revealed nothing of interest, though the sound of faint rushing water could be heard. As they stepped in, however, Jupiter glanced up to see...

"Princess!"

The other's snapped their heads in her direction, and immediately upwards, to see Small Lady trapped in a suspended globe of water. She remained motionless for the time that they watched her, until the tableau was broken as Sephiroth raised his hand, and one of his sword hilt's orbs began to glow.

"No, wait, Sephiroth!"

The former general stopped, and turned with an expression of puzzlement on his face.

Serin pointed at the globe and emphasized, "If you cast magic to break that sphere, you may hurt the princess, too. I think you'd want to prevent that, right?"

Sephiroth looked back up at Small Lady's prison, then down at his companions, and had the good sense to look sheepish. "Sorry. Where I come from, that's the way we break prisons of that type."

"Hee, hee, hee!!! Smart move on your parts, mortals. It's such a shame that you still feel the need to oppose Neo-Queen Serenity!"

Everyone whirled at the new voice, to see a maelstrom of water coalesce into a squat, four-legged form with a bulbous, grinning head.

"Greetings, puny fools! I am Cagnazzo, Fiend of Water. I have orders from the queen to dispose of you, and unlike that fool Milon, I will succeed."

Endymion's jaw visibly dropped at this pronouncement, and he sputtered, "Muh...my...wife?"

Cagnazzo's voice took on a sarcastically saddened tone at this. "Oh, yes, did your rescuers forget to mention this to you? Your wife has seen the error of her ways, and has decided to set out and conquer this world. Of course, if she fails at that, she'll settle for destroying it."

Endymion shook his head. "No! You're lying to me! Serenity would never do such a thing!"

Cagnazzo merely cackled and jerked his head to the other three. "Ask them yourself, once this battle is over. Oh, one other thing," he remarked off-handedly, "Until you defeat me, you don't have any chance of breaking that globe of water holding your precious daughter. And I can promise you that I won't be easy to defeat. Are you ready?"

As the four combatants prepared themselves, Cagnazzo spewed forth a long string of bubbles at Sephiroth, one of which grew to sufficient size to completely encase him inside of it. As the others stared in horror, the Fiend laughed. "Just to insure that this fight doesn't get unfair. Now, then..."

That was as far as he got before a rose came out of nowhere to embed itself in his eye. Roaring in pain, he stumbled backward, and attempted to use his front limbs to pull out the offending object.

This gave Jupiter the opportunity to charge up a Sparkling Wide Pressure attack, which threw Cagnazzo back several steps. Serin then took his sword and tried slicing open the bubble that was imprisoning Sephiroth, to no effect.

Sephiroth, for his part, was also doing his best to break his prison open from the inside, though his efforts were no more successful. Frustration showing on his face, his eyes suddenly brightened, and he attempted to speak through his prison.

"...se...ma..."

Serin shook his head to indicate he didn't understand, which frustrated the imprisoned warrior further. Shouting a bit louder, he repeated, "Use ma...c!"

While the two soldiers tried to communicate, Cagnazzo finally managed to get the rose projectile out of his eye, and was calling up water to form a waist-high barrier around him. Both Jupiter and Endymion utilized the lull to fire more of their attacks at him, but it seemed as though the initial surprise and pain had faded, enabling Cagnazzo to now shrug off their attempts to injure him.

Serin threw a cautious glance back over his shoulder, and then he blinked, finally putting two and two together. Shouting back to Jupiter, he said, "Mako-chan, throw another attack at Sephiroth!"

Jupiter looked back with a frustrated look on her face, and shook her head. "I can't do anything right now! My energy reserves are gone!" she replied.

Cagnazzo cackled in glee and utilized the distraction to cast his most powerful attack. Focusing more energy into his water barrier, the maelstrom grew in size and apparent force until it was towering over each of the fighters. Gesturing with one of his front legs, Cagnazzo sent the tidal wave roaring toward his opponents, sending them crashing back into the far wall. Serin struggled mightily to get to his feet as both Jupiter and Endymion levered themselves off of the ground and leapt away from any possible counterattacks that their opponent threw.

Naturally, Cagnazzo did in fact spray a jet of water that magically diverged into three powerful streams. The aforementioned two warriors were well out of range when the attack came, while Serin barely managed to avoid being blasted. As he managed to roll to his feet, the swordsman heard a familiar voice from their entryway. "Whew! Lucky for you guys I got here in time! Now you get to see a professional in action."

Serin turned back to see Ryuhi casually stroll in, cracking his knuckles, and then his neck, as he slid into his combat stance. A quick glance around revealed to him Sephiroth's predicament, and he turned to Endymion. "Highness, use one of your roses to get our illustrious general out of that bubble. I'll take care of Igor here!" So saying, he turned back to the Fiend, concentrated on bringing forth his aura of red chi, and shouted, "Kaio-Ken times two!" This time, it took a mere two seconds before the results of Ryuhi's handiwork were apparent...and they were worse than anything Milon had suffered. On the flip side, though, Ryuhi was also trembling much more visibly, and when his opponent sprayed a powerful blast of water, the young martial artist couldn't even do much more than twitch in an attempt to dodge as the spray catapulted him with a 'CRASH!' back against the far wall, denting it visibly.

Endymion, however, saw none of this, as he took Ryuhi's advice to heart immediately, and threw one of his roses at the bubble imprisoning their comrade. With an audible 'pop', it immediately dissipated, and the captive collapsed to the ground, coughing. Jupiter was at his side in a moment, insuring that he was okay, but Sephiroth quickly waved her off, attempting to get to his feet within as short amount of time as possible. Once he stood straight, he gestured towards the Fiend, and several bolts of lightning caused their watery opponent to shake and jerk uncontrollably as he roared in pain. However, this only served to enrage Cagnazzo, as he inhaled deeply, and sprayed a jet of water that sent everyone remaining on his or her feet into the wall. Once the attack ended, Sephiroth and his comrades struggled valiantly to get to their feet again, but were constantly stopped short as pain from the impacts ripped through their bodies.

Cackling in satisfaction, Cagnazzo shook his head in mock regret. "So sad, to have fought so hard, and for naught. Perhaps you will do better in the afterlife." With that said, he formed his water barrier again, and prepared for his final strike.

With bleary, pain-glazed vision, Jupiter turned her head to see Serin's face one final time...and blinked in shock as she noticed that he wasn't around. In fact, now that she thought about it, he hadn't been around when Sephiroth was freed from his confinement, either. Shaking her head, and forcing her vision to clear, she managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of a figure creeping up behind their enemy just before she collapsed from unconsciousness.

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The Water Fiend could hardly believe his luck. His master was sure to give him great rewards for his success in eliminating the final obstacles in their grand designs. Oh, there would be some troublesome squawking from Serenity over the death of the final Guardian, but that would be easily smoothed over in the larger scheme of things. It was such a pity, though, that this ragtag group wasn't the fools from so long ago...ah, well.

Just as he prepared to cast Big Wave once more, he felt a searing pain in his back, causing him to cry out in agony. Weakened as he was, he totally lost control of the rising water level, and the princess' prison, causing them to revert to normal and dissipate, respectively. As he turned to face the overlooked distraction, his face registered easily visible shock.

'Damn! How could I have missed him?'

Serin smirked slightly without the slightest trace of humor and winked as he asked, "How you doin', pal? Hm?"

The Fiend reached out with one huge hand to attempt a knockout strike, but the swordsman easily saw it coming, due to his opponent's wounds slowing him down. Leaping over the attack, he raised his sword over his head, and as he hit the apex of his jump, formed an aura of energy around it, not unlike a lightsaber, as he shouted, "Crescent Slash!" which added extra energy to his strikes, forming a crescent moon shape. Coinciding his two strikes with his descent added additional damage to Serin's strike, which threw Cagnazzo back several feet. As the warrior stood in his original landing spot, his sword still partially embedded in the ground, he slowly looked up at his opponent, who calmly returned his gaze, despite the dark blue ichor running down all over his body. Coughing up a mouthful of his blood, the Fiend growled impotently as he raised his head, and vanished in a flash of light.