Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Crystal Dreams ❯ Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Ryuhi wandered through the wreckage of what had once been the Desert Fox clan's pride and joy, shaking his head in regret. Truth be told, he was still a bit shaken from his close brush with death, and was hoping to walk off his nightmarish experience.

Clenching his fist, he angrily smashed it downward into a chunk of metal. He was quite surprised when he saw that it was instantly compacted into a pancake several inches into the ground. Blinking a few times, Ryuhi looked down at his fist in total shock.

'I was never this strong before...I wonder how...' At that moment, a thought occurred to him.

'Could it be that when I get injured and then healed...?' A wicked grin split his face, and he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. 'Even if I don't get anything else out of this trip, it'll be worth it just to get stronger.'

At the same time, Serin was admiring his weapon as he stood on a nearby cliff. A sudden scrape on rock caught his attention, and he smiled.

"Trying to sneak up on me, Mako-chan?" he asked, as he turned to face her.

Jupiter smiled in return, and shook her head. "No. Actually, I was just wondering where you were. I was worried about you."

There might have been something more in her voice, or Serin might have been imagining it, but he didn't want to take the chance. Fortunately, he didn't have to.

Wrapping her arms around him, Jupiter hugged Serin tightly, as if she were afraid to let go. Serin took his cue at that point, and returned the hug, kissing her forehead as he did so. The two lovers gazed at each other with matching grins, before Serin playfully tickled Jupiter's ribs again, causing her to jerk away with a laugh. Smiling gently this time, Serin pulled her close once more, and kissed her passionately. Jupiter, in turn, wrapped her arms around his neck, and returned the token with equal fervor. They might have continued like that indefinitely, had it not been for a shout catching their attention.

Reluctantly breaking off the kiss, both parties turned to see Urawa running toward them, a look of excitement on his face. "Hey, guys, you're not going to believe this!"

Rolling his eyes, Serin replied, "Unless it has something to do with getting into Crystal Tokyo, Urawa, I don't want to hear about it."

Chuckling, Urawa replied, "As a matter of fact, it does! And it involves your sword!"

Serin blinked, and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Come again?"

"I was talking with the elders just now, and they told me that there is an airship nearby! And that your sword is the key to getting it!"

Blinking in confusion, Serin looked at his sword, then back up at Urawa. "Okay...I don't suppose they told you how I'm supposed to use it to get that airship, did they?"

Grabbing his arm, the white wizard urged, "Come on, they'll guide you through the process!"

A few moments later, Serin, his comrades, and the elders of Skyhaven were standing at the peak of a cliff that overlooked the remains of a lake that had long since crystallized. The leader of the five elders then stepped forward and spoke: "Paladin, your Crystal Sword holds a fraction of the power of the Silver Imperium Crystal. With that power, and your mixed heritage, you can call forth your transport...the Big Whale awaits you."

Several amused snorts were heard behind everyone at the airship's name, and both Serin and the elder turned to see everyone studiously looking away, with abnormally straight faces. The elder nodded, and smirked. "Hey, I didn't name it. I've never even seen the thing, so maybe there's a good reason that it's called the Big Whale."

Sephiroth nodded, speaking for all of them. "Of course."

Serin, still unsure what to do, stepped up to the edge of the cliff, brandishing his sword out in front of him. As he pointed it toward the crystalline waters, it suddenly shone brighter, dazzling everyone present. As if in answer, deep within the layers of crystal, another light began glowing brighter in turn. Grasping his weapon's hilt with both hands, the paladin raised the sword above his head, and willed his strength into it. In response, the sword began shining even brighter, as well as its answering beacon. Added to that was several cracks forming on the lake surface, that grew longer and wider as both lights began to increase in intensity. Finally, a form erupted out of its crystal prison, shattering the topmost layer. As everyone ducked, the ship slowly rose, and then came to a landing behind them, at the bottom of the hill that they had climbed.

Everyone slowly came to their feet and gazed at this new mode of transportation that they had acquired. Several moments passed before Serin spoke. "Well...I guess we know why they call it the Big Whale..."

The crowd could only nod in agreement as they stared at the vehicle. Despite it's purple paint job and obviously mechanical appearance, the airship did indeed resemble a whale. As they watched, a ramp slowly descended from the transport's side, hitting the ground with an audible 'thump'.

Curiosity driving him to explore, Serin motioned everyone to stay where they were, and approached the vehicle cautiously. As he paused outside the hatchway, two pairs of footsteps came up behind him, one trying to be quiet and failing, and the other calm and assured, apparently uncaring if it was heard. Turning his head slightly, the paladin said, "I thought I told you to stay back."

Sephiroth shrugged and smirked. "You may be a paladin now, but you're still human. You'll need someone to watch your back."

Jupiter crossed her arms over her chest and stated in a no-nonsense tone of voice, "And don't even think that you can talk me out of going with you. We go together now, no matter what."

Smiling slightly, Serin nodded in mock-resignation, and motioned them up to the hatch's sides as he stepped in. Within seconds after arriving in position, their comrade stepped inside. After a few long seconds, a low whistle was heard from inside, which prompted the pair to follow. What greeted them only encouraged them to emulate Serin's whistle of amazement.

The inside was purely hi-tech, with monitor screens and controls everywhere, showing and controlling many different aspects of the ship, though some were marked in a language that the trio could only guess was Lunarian. The important aspects and controls, however, were translated, so no one saw any need to tempt fate by tampering with the unknown controls, including the giant crystal that was suspended in the center of the bridge.

After surveying their new mode of transportation, Serin clapped his hands together. "Pardon me if I'm being a bit premature on this, but I think we've got a chance to save the other Guardians now."

Jupiter nodded, smiling broadly. "We can do it."

Sephiroth capped the brief summary nicely by adding, "The faint glimmer of hope is about to become reality."

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Within a day, final preparations for the group's arrival at Crystal Tokyo were finished. After a lot of discussion, it was suggested that only Cid would come with the group, in order to pilot the ship, or fix something, should it need a little maintenance. This set off a new round of complaints, mostly from Kara, who demanded that she be brought in on this. Sephiroth agreed with her, pointing out that the more people they had in an assault group, the better their chances were at getting through to the castle. Finally, it was agreed that the assault party would consist of Kara, Sephiroth, Jupiter, Endymion, Serin (of course), Ryuhi, and Urawa. Though there was some complaining from Small Lady, she was eventually brought around to seeing things from her father's point of view. Serin stood back during the whole proceedings, deciding not to get involved with his newfound family yet. He'd save that surprise for when everyone else was present, saving him from having to explain everything over and over again.

Once that was taken care of, Sephiroth posed an interesting question: "How do we get in?"

Jupiter looked up at the tall swordsman and frowned. "What do you mean, 'How do we get in?'. Is there something you haven't told us about?"

Sephiroth adopted a sheepish look at that, and nodded. "Actually, yes. Serenity had locked all gates leading into the city when I left, and has heavy patrols around the clock all along the walls. And last I checked, there weren't exactly any helipads or large open areas where the," and with a gesture of disgust, he finished, "Big Whale will fit."

Serin slowly smiled as an idea came to mind. "I've got an idea."

The grin on his face unnerved his comrades as they turned to look at him. "What do you suggest?" Urawa asked.

"How many of you like to go parachuting?"

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As the Big Whale hovered over the city under the cover of night, Sephiroth glared at his comrade.

"I'd still like to know how you talked me into this."

Serin sighed, and shrugged. "You had your chance to come up with a better idea, and you didn't. If you came up with one now, it's too late. Besides, this is the last thing that anyone would think of..."

Ryuhi muttered, "Anyone in their right mind, anyway."

A light smack upside the head from Jupiter silenced him, who, despite her earlier problems with air travel, was holding up remarkably well, regardless of the knowledge that they were all about to voluntarily jump out of an airship several thousand feet above the ground. "Hey, knock it off, everyone. Serin's right, you had your chance, and you blew it. Besides, we'll be able to easily get into the city this way, and with luck, we should be able to make it to the castle without any problems."

Sephiroth snorted, and muttered, "In my experience, there's no such thing as luck...only extraordinary opportunities."

Serin sighed again, and said, "Hey, let's show some optimism, all right?" Checking his ripcord, the paladin then glanced over at everyone else's, insuring that they were all right as well, before reaching down and attempting to pull open the hatch. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he pulled, the door refused to open.

Then Ryuhi reached over, putting his hand on the latch, and shaking his head. "Man, I don't know why I'm helping you go through with this crazy scheme of yours," he muttered. With a slight grunt of exertion, he opened the exit, causing a huge gust of air to blow around in the tiny space he and his comrades sat in.

Standing briefly in the open hatchway, the martial artist then spread out his arms, and dropped, spread-eagled, down into the city, opening his chute approximately halfway down.

Serin quickly followed suit, though he waited until he was a quarter of the way to the ground before opening his parachute. Jupiter, Endymion, Kara and Urawa quickly followed suit, all three pulling their ripcords immediately upon exiting their transport.

Sephiroth, however, waited until everyone was approximately level with Crystal Tokyo's residences, and then dropped out, in a type of missile dive, accelerating his descent. When he was even with the top of the few business buildings in the utopian city, Sephiroth finally yanked open his chute, slowing his plunge just enough so that when he reached the ground, the shock felt like it was just shy of breaking his legs in half. The swordsman, however, had been used to such combat drops for some time now, and barely flinched or otherwise reacted to the pain. As he got up from the crouch he had used to absorb some of the impact, his comrades were either just reaching the ground, or disentangling themselves from their chutes. After about five minutes, everyone crowded around for a brief strategy session.

Serin quickly took charge. "Okay, we got a few minutes before any troops show up to investigate. The way I figure it, one big group is going to be a bit too obvious. So, we'll have to split up into three pairs, with one of us going solo. I'm not about to ask for a volunteer on that, so I'll be the one to go solo."

Jupiter shot a surprised look at her love. "What? Why?"

Serin quickly and patiently explained, "Because, Jupiter, you, Sephiroth, Endymion and I know our way around Crystal Tokyo, while Kara, Ryuhi and Urawa don't. Somebody needs to go with them to help with navigation, if nothing else."

Unhappily, the warrior-princess nodded in reluctant agreement. Showing a brief flash of concern, Serin looked over at the three party members in question. "Do any of you know how to get to the castle from here?"

The trio shook their heads, which led Serin to nod unhappily as well. "All right, Urawa, you're with Jupiter. You take care of her, or I will have your head." The white wizard flashed a knowing grin at his comrade, and stepped up to his partner's side. "Kara, you go with Sephiroth...which reminds me, do you have a weapon?"

The summoner raised an eyebrow, and pulled out a long length of whip from a pocket in her robes that seemed to pulse energy. Flicking it with practiced ease at a nearby sign, the whip suddenly erupted in flames as it struck the intended target, leaving a noticeable singe upon the metal. Coiling the lengths around her hand, she then smirked, and waited expectantly.

Having been surprised with many other things during the day, Serin and the others barely raised an eyebrow at the display. "Right. Ryuhi, obviously, you're with the king. Take good care of him, as well. If nothing else, we'll need him to try and talk sense into Serenity." Clapping his hands softly, he finished with, "All right people, let's split up, and meet in front of the castle gates in twenty minutes. If anyone gets there early..."

Sephiroth interjected at this point, stating, "That's a good way to get killed."

Stopping his outline, the paladin looked up at his comrade and asked, "Look, Seph, I know that's not the brightest plan in the world, but it's not like the castle has a back door..."

"That's funny. Because I happen to know that there is, in fact, a 'back way'. Plus, we'll be passing by the dungeon on our way in to the throne room, and can thus free the other senshi. Even if they don't fight any of Serenity's creatures, they too should be able to talk some sense into the queen."

Endymion slowly sized up his comrade, his eyes slightly narrowing as he did so. "You seem to have an unusual amount of knowledge about the castle for a simple soldier, Sephiroth."

For his part, the former general simply shrugged. "I make it a point to take in all possible contingencies when I can...which is one reason among many why Serin and Guardian Jupiter were able to make it this far."

Blinking at that, Serin set aside the most recent comments to ask why his friend hadn't mentioned the extra entrance before, but stopped himself.

'It would be just like him, the king or even Ryuhi to be a smartass and say 'Because you didn't ask.'' Shaking out of his reverie, the warrior then nodded. "All right, then, where is this secret back door?"

"On the left side of the castle, almost completely covered by some hedges. However, if you really want to split up, then there is yet another way into the castle dungeon...but I have to say it really stinks."

Kara blinked, then asked, "What do you mean, Sephiroth?"

Sephiroth wordlessly walked over to a nearby manhole and pointed at it. The implications were obvious, and reaction was typical.

Kara turned a shade of green that matched her robes at the thought, and looked back up at her partner. "I hope you aren't asking what I think you are."

Sephiroth shrugged. "The way I see it, only Urawa and I know healing spells. I think that this was another reason that Serin split us up the way he did."

Actually, it wasn't, but Serin saw no need to bring that point up, and instead let it slide.

Kara glanced over the rest of her comrades before sighing, and gesturing impatiently to the manhole. "I just hope nobody here flushes baby alligators down the toilet..."

Before anything else could be said, several shouts became audible, and slowly increased in volume.

Serin turned quickly at that, and began snapping off orders quietly. "Seph, Kara, go through the sewers. The rest of us will meet you in the dungeon. Urawa, Jupiter, head off to the east, and we'll meet you at the side entrance. Ryuhi, highness, same goes for you two, except head to the west. Okay?"

After getting quick acknowledgements, the four groups departed in their separate directions, hoping against hope that they would be able to meet up as planned...

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Meanwhile...

Serenity watched calmly as the intruders into her city split up in four groups as they made their way to the castle. For a brief moment, she debated ordering her contingents to pull back to the castle, but shook her head. No, the best thing to do now was let them meet scattered resistance along the way, weakening them as they went. In fact, now that she really thought about it, she might as well release her cache of elite troopers, which hopefully would be enough to eliminate one or even all of them, save for the traitor and that girl in the sewers. She knew that what was going on with their comrades would be the least of their worries...

At any rate, should any survivors make it to the castle, she would let them meet her little 'surprise', and that would be that.

Nodding to herself, and laughing softly, she continued observing the interlopers' movements, laughing again at their naiveté as they moved on, totally oblivious to the fact that they were being watched...

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Serin glanced around as he finished dispatching yet another of Serenity's 'special forces', hoping to see some sign of life beyond the usual movement of troops. Though he didn't see what he wanted to, the maneuver saved his life.

Reacting within a split-second, Serin leaned to the left, pulling his right leg away from the impact point of the axe that just narrowly avoided making him half a man. Leaping in the same direction, Serin put a little more distance between himself and the attacker, and took a good first look at his opponent.

In another split-second, he had to wonder how Serenity managed to get a hold of a minotaur, which was all the time he got before the hair on the back of his neck stood up, making him leap to his right this time, as a huge broadsword gouged a long incision in the ground where the paladin had been standing. Breathing heavily, Serin saw that his new attacker was dressed as a medieval knight, wearing full red armor, complete with helmet, and carrying a shield that was half as tall as he was. Gritting his teeth, the paladin weighed his options, and was just about to implement a plan of his, when approximately five troopers with blaster rifles took up various positions around the minotaur and knight. Readying their weapons with a cacophony of clicks and hums, Serin found himself staring down five barrels ready to spit lasers at him, which was five more than he wanted at the moment.

Weighing his new options, Serin noted with irritation that there were simply too many of them to use his Lunar Beam technique effectively, and that using the Crescent Slash would be counterproductive, since he might be able to hit the knight or minotaur, maybe both, before being cut down by laser blasts.

That left him with only one option, which he knew was probably going to cost him.

Holding his sword straight up in front of his face, Serin infused himself with the sword's power, dulling his sense of pain. Once he felt sure that he was ready, the paladin charged the group, ducking under the initial, panicked shots. Though he knew that they would soon correct for the mistake, Serin didn't intend to give them the time.

Leaping up over the heads of the soldiers, the warrior noted his first almost-mistake, and twisted in mid-air to narrowly avoid the knight's sword swinging through the space that Serin had just been about to occupy. Categorizing his opponents in order of danger posed, Serin immediately thrust his sword at the knight upon touching the ground, managing to catch his target in the side.

The knight lurched away from his opponent, his shield shifting to cover the wounded area as he retreated. That gave Serin a bit more breathing room, and enabled him to use his technique to full effect.

Utilizing all of the skill that he had accumulated in this lifetime and during the Silver Millennium, Serin turned and dealt a heavy blow to the minotaur, who had been extremely slow to react to the presence of an enemy in their midst. Catching the bull-man in the chest, Serin immediately turned to the riflemen, who still had looks of amazement on their otherwise blank faces. With several quick strikes, three went down without a struggle, but the fourth managed to quickly snap up his weapon and fire a shot.

The laser bolt managed to hit at a weak point in the crystal armor, piercing through and leaving the paladin with a nasty burn wound. This, however, didn't even slow the warrior down, as he swung his sword again, taking down the last riflemen seconds later.

As he turned to the knight, however, Serin felt himself being lifted off of the ground, and tossed into a nearby building. Caught entirely by surprise, the paladin could do nothing to protect himself, and ended up crashing into the wall heavily, leaving a sizeable dent in the brick construction.

Even through his Crystal-induced 'numbness', Serin was slow to regain his feet, and by the time he did, the minotaur had its axe over its head, and was tensing his muscles to bring it crashing down.

Just before the weapon moved, however, a disc of lightning struck the bull-man in the face, eliciting a lowing of pain from the creature as it staggered back.

Blinking in shock, Serin prepared to resume his attack, when a sword came out of nowhere to decapitate the minotaur's head. Serin ducked reflexively as he saw the weapon, then noticed that the knight had saved him. Just as the paladin was about to ask why, the knight then took the sword, and thrust it point first into its own chest, easily cutting through the armor. As it collapsed to the ground, it, the riflemen's remains, and the minotaur disintegrated into dust.

Turning to look behind him, Serin wasn't the least bit surprised to see Jupiter and Urawa rushing up to him, with looks of concern on their faces. It was at that point that the pain of his wounds really hit, and forced the paladin to his knees, as he attempted to bite back a scream.

Urawa quickly and methodically examined the visible wound before pressing on his comrade's side, which elicited an outcry from the paladin. Jupiter stood hovering over the entire proceeding, looking as if her world was coming to an end...which, for her, it would if Serin died.

Urawa then concentrated, and a glowing multicolored light surrounded his hand as he again pressed it to Serin's side. This time, the warrior didn't react as badly, letting the magic flow into his body. Within a matter of seconds, the wizard moved his hand to the blaster wound, and after a brief moment of healing, let the power burn out.

Serin twisted his torso quickly, checking for broken bones, or any other injuries he should know about, then raised an eyebrow at his comrades.

"Thanks, but shouldn't you two be somewhere else?"

Urawa spread his hands innocently as he backed up. "Hey, don't look at me, boss. I tried to tell her, but she was adamant about staying with you. Believe me, you don't want to make her mad."

Jupiter playfully swatted the wizard, then turned to her love. "Serin-kun, I...you stayed with me back then, even though you knew better...you wanted to protect me. I want to return the favor. I don't care about sneaking to the castle in smaller groups, I just want to be with you...no matter what." Shyly, she added, "Isn't that what wedding vows say? '''Til death do us part.'?"

Blinking slowly, Serin finally responded with, "You know, Mako-chan, this is one hell of a time to suggest that I propose to you. And it wasn't exactly the surroundings I wanted, either."

This time, it was Jupiter's turn to blink as she realized what Serin was saying. But, before she could respond, Serin winked, and added, "Let's save it for now."

Her heart feeling like it was going to beat right out of her chest, Jupiter nodded as her love turned to their comrade, who had been watching the events with a sort of half-smile. "Alright, let's keep moving. There's no telling how many of these things there are, and if need be, we may have to assist and rejoin with the rest of our friends." Sighing, he added, "I only hope that Sephiroth and Kara aren't having as much trouble..."

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Sloshing through the sewer water, Kara finally gave up on trying to keep her robes above the repugnant liquid, and let them hang, dragging through the waste. Her initial efforts had been to tie them above her knees, which hampered her movements when the first monster attacks came. That skirmish left her with a bad gouge in her shoulder, but Sephiroth had quickly cast a Cure spell on it, healing the wound without the slightest scar.

Afterwards, Kara then tried carrying her robes above the water, but felt rather silly looking like a lady of royalty hurrying through the halls of the palace. Added to that was the problem that she couldn't attack or even cast magic while holding them, so she was left with no other choice than to drop them in the foul water each time they entered into combat. After about the third attack, she finally gave up, and simply let her robes hang. She could see about getting a new set made later.

'One thing's for sure, I'm not going to be able to get the grime and smell out of these,' the summoner thought with a grimace. It had taken her quite a bit of time to get used to the stench, but she still made a point of breathing through her mouth just to avoid any nasty odors from surprising her. Sephiroth, however, hadn't opened his mouth more than a few times during their trek, and those were mostly along the lines of directing her where to go, or coordinating their attacks. It still amazed the young summoner when she saw the swordsman in action, magically or physically. Either way, he appeared to be completely unbeatable.

Kara's reverie was broken when she bumped into her companion from behind, knocking her back a step, but barely budging the tall warrior. Looking up and around at his face, she saw a look of intense concentration...but he suddenly frowned, and slowly brought his Masamune sword into his ready stance. Following his lead, Kara pulled out her Flame Whip, and readied a quick spell to fling, though with the monsters down here, it didn't seem to do much more than weaken them. Still, she was bound and determined to do her part.

Several minutes passed as the two remained frozen in their respective combat stances, waiting for their attackers to appear. It was at this point that Kara asked, "Are you pulling a joke on me? Even simple spells are difficult to maintain for long."

Sephiroth slowly shook his head. In a focused voice, he replied, "I heard something sloshing around just ahead. Unless Serin and the others have followed our lead and somehow gotten ahead of us, it has to be another monster."

Nodding, Kara kept her eyes focused on the darkened expanse in front of them, when suddenly she glanced at the water at their feet and noticed that it was quite a bit higher than it was before. Whistling to get her companion's attention, she pointed down at the water, and then raised an eyebrow questioningly.

Sephiroth's widening eyes and quick nod gave her the confirmation she needed to quickly jump out of the viscous liquid onto a nearby pile of solid garbage. Unfortunately, as she landed on the mass of refuse, she slipped, falling on her back with a loud splash into the water.

Though it happened suddenly, as Kara quickly sat up, spluttering and coughing, she saw Sephiroth stepping forward to help her before being wrapped up by a thick, ropy tentacle that yanked him under.

With a surge of adrenaline, Kara clambered to her feet and began searching through the waters for her comrade, wildly waving her arms through the waste. At one point, she thought that she had found his deformed body, but with a mixture of relief and newfound fear, she pulled up his Masamune sword.

Glancing around while nervously chewing her lip, Kara finally situated herself on a piece of garbage above the water table, and chanted a moderately powerful spell, casting Bolt 2 into the waste. For a moment, the entire length of the tunnel glowed from the electricity that was being conducted, but the light quickly died down as the summoner nervously waited for any developments.

After a few minutes passed, a gasping, stumbling Sephiroth appeared right next to Kara, trying to pull off the tentacle that had somehow stayed wrapped around his throat. After the initial shock passed, the young summoner hopped down, and assisted her friend in pulling off the offending appendage. Throwing his head back, Sephiroth managed to get his silver hair out of his eyes, and slowly climbed to his feet as he was bombarded by questions from his comrade.

"Are you okay? What happened?!"

Coughing, the swordsman replied, "Hell if I know. Whatever it was that grabbed me, I never managed to get a good look at it. I'd sure like to know why my body suddenly was wracked with pain, though," he added, as he shot an accusing glance at Kara.

The summoner shifted uncomfortably as she pressed her opposing pointer fingers against each other back and forth. "Uh...well..."

His face returned to its normal expressionless state at that. "Don't worry. All things considered, you made the right choice." His eyes widened slightly then, as a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Hey, where's my Masamune?"

Kara quickly retrieved it from the pile of garbage that she had leaned it against, and extended it hilt-first to her comrade. Sephiroth quickly accepted it, and thoroughly inspected the weapon, cleaning it as he went, paying special attention to the blade. Once he was certain that it was as clean as it was going to get, the swordsman stood, and after taking a deep breath, jerked a thumb toward the direction they had been going.

"Let's keep moving. If there are more creatures like this one in here, then we'll want to get out as soon as we can."

With a nod of agreement, the pair resumed their trek toward the bowels of the castle, and it's dungeons.

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Meanwhile...

Serenity cursed viciously as she saw through her magical mirror the group above ground rejoining their forces about halfway to the castle. The new elite forces that Zemus had created were turning out to be absolutely nothing to the intruders. Furthermore, they had almost been completely destroyed. Thanks to interference of some kind, the queen couldn't see what was going on with the remaining pair in the sewers, but she had a sinking feeling that they, too, were meeting with great success.

Setting her teeth, she snapped her fingers as she came to a decision. "Rubicant!"

A blast of flame in the middle of the room heralded the arrival of her master's most powerful Fiend. Serenity smiled tightly as he bowed respectfully. He had never been the type to lord his power over anyone, and was always interested in a fair fight. As he stood, the Fiend asked in a subservient voice, "Yes, my Queen?"

"I want you to go to the dungeon and kill the Guardians, as well as Luna and Artemis. Then, bring their corpses here to the throne room," the queen dictated.

Rubicant frowned slightly. "Pardon me for asking, but weren't we supposed to save their execution for master Zemus' coronation as ruler of the world?"

Serenity waved the detail away. "We'll think of something later. Right now, their corpses can serve to shake up Serin and his cohorts. However, if they join their power, then we're all finished...even master Zemus."

Rubicant nodded, though the set of his face indicated his dislike. "I hear and obey, your Highness. It shall be so."

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Moments after their group was completely reunited, Serin and his friends arrived at the side entrance that Sephiroth had told them about. The shrubbery in question that was supposed to be obscuring normal view of the doorway was, in fact, rotted and dried out, so it was a simple matter to pull it away from the entry in question, and open the door.

Only to feel a heavy rumbling come from behind them just as they started to move forward. Turning back, they saw that the two statues situated on either side of the gate, which had the lower body of a snake, along with a humanoid upper body, arms, and a face that resembled a horned orc, had somehow come to life, and were quickly slithering their way to the heroes, swinging their ball and chain weapons in a circle above their heads as they went. Before the group could even think to scurry inside ahead of their pursuers, another pair of the same creatures came slithering at an even faster pace around the castle corner, and immediately arrowed in on their apparent targets, though these two were not swinging their weapons around in preparation for immediate use.

The entire group, save for Ryuhi, stepped back. The young martial artist instead took a single step forward, and made a giant leap to connect with a roundhouse kick at one of the creatures' face. Connecting with an audible 'crack', Ryuhi used the momentum to propel himself backward a safe distance, hopefully out of range of the creature's weapon. Unfortunately, aside from sliding backward a couple of feet, the attack was quickly shrugged off, and the creature resumed his threatening advance.

In response, two of the creatures howled loudly to the heavens, forming an aura of energy that crackled and wrapped around them, before apparently making them grow even bigger.

Blinking in astonishment, Serin quipped at this point, "I take it this is a bad thing."

Ryuhi barely spared the paladin a glance before snarling back, "No shit, Sherlock."

Biting back the obvious retort, Serin studied the creatures as the one Ryuhi had struck approached and, giving his weapon one last swing above his head, brought it crashing down toward Endymion.

Fortunately, the monster was nowhere near as fast as its target who, despite having seen no real action for some time, was still equal to the task as he leapt up and over his attacker, tossing a barrage of roses that embedded themselves in various places on top of the creature's head and shoulders. With a roar of pain, the king's target began clumsily plucking out the offending objects as best it could.

Seeing an opportunity, Jupiter charged up a Sparkling Wide Pressure attack, then lobbed it with all of her strength at her target. At the same time, Serin focused his power into his own weapon, and let loose with his Lunar Beam attack. The end result was that both attacks hit the creature at the exact same time. With a growing sense of excitement, the group watched intently as the recipient slowly staggered, then straightened, and roared with rage as it again advanced on them.

Urawa, for his part, had stayed back from the action, unable to help his teammates in their endeavors. Therefore, he was the only one able to warn Ryuhi when he glanced over at the last enemy, and saw it bringing its weapon crashing down on the martial artist. "Ryuhi, LOOK OUT!"

If the martial artist had merely moved, he would have been fine. But, true to tradition, he looked...and the iron ball struck him dead center.

Jupiter screamed in shock, which prompted Serin to tear his gaze away from the (supposedly) injured creature, and saw a muscular arm peeking out from underneath the last monster's weapon.

Charging at his target, Serin cut loose literally with a barrage of sword strikes and slashes that cut deeply into the enemy's armor and skin, causing thick, green ichor to run freely. Even after the creature was backed up against the castle's outer wall, the paladin showed no signs of stopping, even though he was breathing heavily and his attacks were noticeably slowing down. Finally, though, he swung around behind the creature's head, and plunged his blade point-first into its skull.

With an animalistic scream, the creature disintegrated into thin air, leaving no trace of its existence behind. As he hit the ground, however, Serin collapsed face-first onto the ground. Jupiter was beside him in an instant, and breathed a tentative sigh of relief when she saw that he was all right, merely exhausted. Glancing up, she saw that the king and Urawa were completely preoccupied with fending off the other three monsters, trying to keep them from their injured comrade. Biting her lip, Jupiter shifted her gaze between the lopsided battle and her love, and finally charged back into the fray, praying that a miracle would happen...and soon.

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In the meantime, on the Big Whale, Cid leaned back in the pilot's chair with his feet resting on the control panel as he snored away. As he shifted around, a button on one of the armrests was lightly pressed, and a monitor suddenly came to life, with the message:

Lunar Reflectors being positioned...done.

Beginning to store necessary power for phase two........ Done.

Confirm Phase two? Y/n

Cid snorted in his sleep, and shifted some more as the background hum increased slightly in volume. This allowed one of his feet to land with a thud against the control panel, which incidentally allowed another button to be pressed. This brought up a new message:

Code eleven confirmed. Self-destruction will begin in five minutes unless appropriate cancellation key is pressed. Okay? Y/n

His luck showing incredible pendulum-like characteristics, Cid shifted in his sleep again, this time not only hitting another button, but flipping a switch as well. This brought up the message:

Code eleven cancelled. Phase two confirmed. Correlating known enemy and ally profiles...done. Evidence indicates allies are under attack. Defend? Y/n

This time, Cid let one of his hands drop from its position on his chest, where it flipped another switch. A second screen then showed the battle below, with three crosshairs centering on their targets. On the first screen, one final question was displayed:

Laser cannons in position. Targets acquired. Confirm attack? Y/n

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Jupiter panted hard, sweat dripping down her face in rivers. Despite her, Endymion and Urawa's best attempts, the creatures still managed to keep coming, despite the fact that two of them were very obviously hurt, largely due to the fact that Urawa had learned a new attack that blasted them with holy energy (unfortunately, it ate up the white wizard's energy reserves quickly). After only three attacks, he had barely been able to stand up, much less defend his comrades, who weren't in much better shape, and had been relegated to attacking with his staff.

The trio shared a glance as their enemies approached, and sadly shook their heads. They were beaten, and they all knew it. Nevertheless, the three of them shifted into their defensive stances, ready to fight to the death if need be.

As it was, they were quite surprised when several blinding blasts of light tore up the ground in front of them, easily disintegrating the remaining aggressors. Before they even had time to howl a challenge, the creatures were vaporized under the laser's power.

Unsure what to make of this sudden turn of fortune, the trio decided rather quickly to turn, grab their comrades, and slip inside the castle before their mysterious benefactor decided to turn on them.