Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ A New Threat To Spira ❯ Revelations ( Chapter 5 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Neon Ronin 
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action / Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 09.01.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 4.1K | Visits: 295 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action / Romance | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 09.01.2004 | Pages: 2 | Words: 4.1K | Visits: 295 | Status: Completed
[A/N: I own nothing of Square Enix. Yet they own my soul. ^_^ Quick recap of who was using what DressSphere in the last chapter. Yuna: Gunner. Tidus: Alchemist. Rikku: Gun Mage. Paine: Black Mage. Baralai: Himself.]
5: Revelations
The crazed abominations, which Rikku had deduced from a scanning were called Wrathfangs, had torn most of the planking of the watchtower into kindling. Luckily there was still enough space to stand on, which became even more vital as the fiends took to the skies and began divebombing the group. Their skin was remarkably durable, forcing Yuna to eject her normal bullets and reload with armor-piercing "Cheap Shot" rounds. Baralai swung his staff in a wide arc as two Wrathfangs descended upon him, carving both across the chest but inflicting minimal apparent damage. "This is getting a little too hot to handle, guys!!" Rikku shouted as she blasted one of the fiends with an infused slug. "Just keep at them; they can't hold out forever!" Paine yelled back, jabbing her staff in the air and encasing two fiends in blocks of ice.
Tidus jammed a hand into one of his trenchcoat pockets and pulled out a fistful of ingredients. Picking two that seemed to shimmer with magical auras, he crammed them into a small mixing vial and shook the concoction viciously. "Hold on, everyone; this could get interesting!!" he yelled as he chucked the rapidly glowing canister into the air. Everyone ducked just as the airborne Wrathfangs became engulfed in a whirlwind of white light; bolts of holy energy rocketed out from the skies, tearing half of the fiends to shreds. Tidus stared. "What did I just do?!?"
"Looks like you found one of their weaknesses; Holy damage!" Yuna called back with a smile on her face. The smile was short-lived, as the remaining half of the Wrathfang group descended to meet their prey face to face. In a flurry of claws and teeth, they tore into the five with reckless abandon. Tidus and Yuna were both slashed pretty badly, but the fact that they had repositioned back-to-back meant they each took less damage than they would otherwise. Another pair were determined to crush Paine between themselves, but Baralai jumped in at the last second and blocked their attacks, partly with his staff and partly with his own body. Rikku ducked and rolled and just barely managed to avoid being mauled.
"We gotta get through that armor of theirs!!" Rikku said as an intrigued look crossed her face. Quickly she calibrated her gun and checked what techniques she had been able to store within it. "Ah-HA!" she cried out, flipping the gun forward and charging up eldritch energies. "Let's see how these guys enjoy the taste of HEAVEN'S CATARACT!!" A blinding shower of light burst forth from her gun, tearing at the fiends before them. Screeches of pain threatened to deafen every last one of the Gullwings, and as the smoke cleared, it was obvious that their tough hides were charred and weakened.
"We've almost got them now, don't let up!" Yuna gasped, flipping both pistols forward and emptying them into the nearest Wrathfang. Tidus jammed his rifle into the nearest fiend's rapidly approaching maw and pulled the trigger; Baralai staggered up and spun his staff around, unleashing his devastating Glint attack. Shrieks went up from every last fiend as they collapsed and dissolved into pyreflies. Without a second's hesitation, Tidus crammed several healing potions into a mixing vial and tossed it into the air. The canister burst open, showering the five of them with powerful healing salve.
Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief, followed by an incredibly loud *SLAP* that caused Tidus and Yuna to glance around in surprise and Rikku to visibly wince. Baralai just stood there with his eyes wide open, a red mark on his left cheek.
"Baralai, you idiot!!" Paine was visibly shaking and biting her lower lip as she lowered her open hand. "Why did you have to go and do something like that?? You could have been killed!!"
"So could you, Paine," he responded in a soft voice.
"I know the risks; I can take care of myself."
"You were being cornered; I didn't want you outnumbered."
"So you let yourself become a punching bag for those things; do you have any idea how stupid that was????" Paine's voice was almost choking.
Baralai stood silent for a moment, then took a step forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "Paine... I'm sorry. I acted before I thought; I'll be more careful next time."
She looked up at him and saw the way he was looking at her, and slowly her anger faded. I shouldn't have snapped at him like that; he was only trying to help, even if he did something stupid like that... Paine straightened out and brushed a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. "Just don't feel you have to be a human shield for my sake, okay? I don't want anyone getting hurt over me." A barely perceptible tear lingered at the corner of one eye.
A low guttural howl suddenly broke forth from further up in the watchtower. The Gullwings all glanced up and quickly noticed a gaping hole that was gouged into the side of the massive coral reef that made up the tower's central support. Tidus pushed his goggles back on his forehead. "Looks like there's more work to be done," he muttered grimly. "Does anyone need another shot of healing potion before we see what's up there?" The others checked themselves and it appeared that a few scrapes aside, his earlier Mega-Potion mixture had done the trick.
'Time to get serious," Paine said as she punched a sphere on her Grid. Flame and light engulfed her, replacing her Mage's robes with the spiked steel of Dark Knight armor. The change complete, the group made their way up the shattered wooden ramps as fast as possible, towards the opening torn into the ancient reef.
The chasm within the living coral gave off a cerulean glow none would have expected; the walls were permeated with veins of blue crystal that seemed to flicker in response to the presence of the Gullwings. Wind currents drifting through the porous cavern walls, creating the sensation that the cavern was a living, breathing entity. Despite the luminescence of the walls, the heart of the coral reef was steeped in darkness. Yuna shivered, peering desperately into the darkness ahead of them.
"What do you think made that noise?" she pondered aloud.
"It sounded almost like the cry of a whale," Tidus said, "but there was something about it I didn't like at all." He passed a hand over one of the walls beside them. "I've never seen a reef quite like this before..."
A low groan emerged almost directly in front of them. Everyone whipped around in time to see the darkness before them undulate and turn to face them. As the black form extended upwards and outwards, it took on the semblance of not one fiend, but two seemingly fused together. Rikku first thought it was the biggest Flan fiend she had ever seen, but her eyes widened as the skeletal face and torso of a Lich became apparent at the top of its body. Tendrils of slime worked their way along its grossly oversized arms, and clouds of black ichor roiled through its gelatinous lower body. It stared at the horrified humans before it, and then did something no fiend had ever done before. It spoke.
"You... disturb Morlach. Morlach... will end your pain."
Baralai stared. "Did that... THING just speak??"
Rikku started trembling. "E fyhhy ku rusa, E fyhhy ku rusa, E fyhhy ku rusa..."
[Translation: I wanna go home, I wanna go home, I wanna go home...]
The beast let out a guttural roar and shot a cloud of viscous black miasma across the cavern floor, knocking everyone to their knees and blinding Tidus, Paine and Baralai. Rikku and Yuna struggled to their feet as a burning sensation erupted in the pit of their stomach. With a cry of desperation, Yuna fired a high-density bullet into the fiend's gelatinous abdomen, knocking chunks of slime across the room and causing it to growl even louder. Rikku stared at the scan readout of her gun as she attempted to discern what they were dealing with. "Uh-oh! This thing isn't registering at all; all I'm getting is Type Unknown!!" she wailed. The Morlach grinned wickedly and raked its claws across the room, gouging everybody it could reach.
Kicking up to his feet, Tidus blindly slammed two ingredients into a canister and lobbed it up, hoping that he had grabbed the right items. Seconds later, a cool wave washed over the party, the burning sensations faded and eyes were opened again. "Here comes the hurt," Paine growled as she stepped forward and smashed her sword into the ground; scorching sensations coursed through her veins as a wave of Darkness blasted forth from her body. The Morlach growled again, making an effort to seem more angry than injured. "Let's see if it can cope with this!!" Rikku shouted stridently, charging up her gun and blasting a Flan-specific bullet into the heart of the beast. It grunted, but did not seem terribly affected by the charge. "Um... I'm open to suggestions, guys???" Rikku didn't get to say much more as pseudopods began lashing forth from the Morlach, scoring wicked lash marks across everyone's arms and faces.
Baralai snapped the cap on a Mega-Potion, showering the group with healing energies as Tidus fastballed a freshly mixed Archangel bomb into the melee. The vial exploded in a whirl of light, tearing through the Morlach but still not stopping it. "We're going to have to take this fight to it!!" Yuna cried as she blasted the fiend with another enchanted round, then jumped back and activated her Grid. White light engulfed her and she sprang forth clad in Warrior's armor, focusing eldritch energies into the blade of her sword. "Heads up, Yuna!" Tidus called out as he tossed another mixture her way. The Wall potion burst around her, enveloping her just as the Morlach bore down upon her and vomited arcane flames upon her figure. As the flames died down, the Morlach grinned- and suddenly stared as Yuna burst forth from the fire, swinging her blade directly at the beast's head. The blade glowed electric blue and smashed one horn clean off; the Morlach screamed in agony just as Paine dashed forward and plunged her own sword into the fiend's slime-coated ribcage.
"How... can this be?" roared the fiend. "Master said... could not be stopped!!!!" Red flames leaped forth from its eye sockets as it whirled madly, dousing the entire room with fire from its palms. Rikku dropped to her knees with a wail, burns covering her arms and legs. Baralai choked back on the pain and dashed forward, pummeling the Morlach's body with staff strikes.
"I don't care what in the Farplane you are, you don't mess with the Gullwings!!" Tidus shouted, Spherechanging back into his usual Warrior garb. Almost faster than the others could see, he jumped and pushed off from the far wall, arching backwards and swinging Caladbolg around as holy fires burst forth from the blade. With both hands, Tidus slammed the sword directly into the fiend's forehead, crushing the skull and continuing through to obliterate the neck and shoulder blades. The Morlach screeched and shuddered, vomiting up clouds of pyreflies as it collapsed and dissipated into nothingness.
The howling of the wind slowly died down within the cavern. There was no other sound except the five warriors catching their breath. Slowly their eyes became accustomed to the glow of the walls around them.
"That... was not my idea of a good time," Rikku moaned as she gulped down some Hi-Potion.
"I hope it's over," Yuna said as she assumed her White Mage robes again and cast a powerful restorative spell on the party. This accomplished, she changed once again to her normal clothes.
"What I'm still confused about is what that thing was, and why it was here..." Baralai mused. "And I'm not too sure I liked the way it mentioned a Master."
"Hey... Look at this," Tidus interjected as he examined the floor where the fiend had fallen. The others looked over and saw he was holding a perfectly round convex crystal disk, no bigger than his palm. It was a deep blue and seemed to scintillate with the same glow the walls were infused with. "That fiend- the Morlach, or whatever it was- must've dropped it."
Yuna stepped closer. "It looks like something a person might wear, like a pendant."
"Wow... It's really pretty," said Rikku as she sidled up to take a better look.
"Do you think this is what the fiends were after?" Tidus asked.
"I know fiends often become attracted to Spheres, but this doesn't look anything like that," said Baralai. "Maybe you'd better put that thing down and..."
The crystal started to glow a brighter blue than before. Everyone shuddered involuntarily and took a step back. Tidus stumbled and dropped it on the floor before them, but the glow did not stop. If anything, it grew brighter still. A sound began to drift across the cavern, a gentle sound, reminiscent of the Hymn of the Fayth. Everyone stared in wonder as a soft blue whorl of energy began to form above the crystal, gradually taking on the form of a human woman. Her skin and eyes were a brilliant cerulean hue, her hair held tinges of silver and seemed to be in constant motion. She wore little except for flowing aquamarine cloth that seemed to be less cloth and more pure liquid. There was little anyone could do except stare in awe.
Yuna spoke first. "What are... Who are you?"
The woman looked towards Yuna and spoke with a definitive echo in her voice. "It has begun already. As I am awake, so too must he be. And Spira shall be all the worse lest we can stop him once more. We feared it would come to this..."
"What do you mean?" Tidus asked. "Who's awake again? Who has to be stopped?"
The woman looked around the room, gazing at those before her with a kindly yet sad expression on her face.
"... The Immortal."
"I am Naia. The living spirit of Elemental Water, and Keeper of the Water Crystal. Crafted long ago by my Lord Rilian, Master of the Arcane Arts. I, and those like me, were wrought to combat and seal away a great evil, one who should have remained sealed for all time. He was my lord's greatest enemy, and a plague to all who would not bow to his whims or recognize his self-imposed rulership.
"He was once mortal. A student of my lord Rilian, no less. But in his own arrogance he sought power beyond that which could be controlled. He became a student of Chaos magic, a power too great for most men to wield and stay sane. People feared him for what he had become. They sought to unseat him, lest he turn all of Spira into a blighted landscape just like the Plains of Woe. But all attempts were doomed to failure... for he had delved into the darkness so far that he had become something other than human. Could not be killed. Could not be Sent to the Farplane.
"His true name was lost to all. No one knew him by any name except that which he had given himself. Malar."
Naia paused in her tale. Yuna stood with her eyes wide in amazement. Tidus had a look of genuine bewilderment on his face. Rikku was biting her lower lip and Paine arched an eyebrow in the direction of the blue woman. Baralai had dropped his staff and was torn between astounded and shocked.
"Malar?" Yuna said. "I've never heard of that name before. It certainly never cropped up in the teachings of Yevon, or in the history of the Machina War."
"It would appear that more time has passed than I first thought," said Naia thoughtfully. Her image glowed and wavered, almost rippling.
"You said this 'Malar' was something called The Immortal earlier," said Baralai. "That doesn't help much; what records remain in Bevelle have never mentioned such a person."
"Someone who can't be killed or Sent?" Tidus wondered aloud. "I never heard of anyone who could cheat death that way, except for..." He trailed off, his eyes growing wide.
"Yu Yevon." Yuna shuddered at the memory of the ordeal they had undergone more than two years past. The one spirit that had endured for ages, never Sent, always returning in the hideous armor of Sin. "But... But we defeated him, and he had been killed once before, a thousand years ago! He shouldn't still be able to come back!!" she protested.
"I know not of this 'Yu Yevon' of whom you speak," Naia said softly. "Malar was a monster of long, long ago, many ages. Not only did he perfect a means by which he could not die, he became capable of something far worse than any Magus should be allowed to do." She looked at the five before her with sadness in her eyes. "He learned to control the fiends that roam this world. He could command numerous abominations to do his bidding. Just before his imprisonment, worst of all, he had nearly perfected the art of molding them to his own whims... creating fiends of his own design from smaller, weaker ones."
"Which would explain the things we just fought... " Paine said.
"Someone who doesn't die and can control fiends??" Rikku shook her head in disbelief. If that kind of man was running loose in Spira, it could be even worse than Sin, with scores of mutated and enhanced fiends rampaging across the land at his whim! Just then an odd thought struck her. "Hang on a moment. If this guy's all that, why hasn't anyone ever heard about him???"
"That might have to do with the spheres Trema took with him to the Underground," said Baralai. "If what this woman says is correct, any records of this man would had to have been from long before the Machina War, before any of the history that we know today. If those records were among those Trema destroyed, no one today would be able to learn of such a person."
"And now he's apparently on the loose again," said Tidus. "But if he was supposed to be sealed away, what was it that broke him out? And how?"
Naia turned and said, "It was only the combined power of myself and those like me that imprisoned him. There were four of us originally; hopefully the others are still somewhere in Spira. Earth, Fire, Air and Water joined together and countered Malar's Chaos magic, binding him deep beneath the surface of the Plains of Woe. Our task complete, we were consigned to hiding places, to be awakened in the event our service was needed again. The barrier containing The Immortal would not need to be sustained by us, as it was fed from two great fonts of power. To the South, the Farplane entrance at Guadosalam; to the North, the mystic forest of Macalania."
"So he was imprisoned between two... great... Hey, wait a minute!!" Rikku exclaimed. "You mean... this Malar guy was sealed under..."
"The Thunder Plains," continued Paine. "And if something were to, say, happen to one of those fonts of energy..."
"The forest." Yuna's voice was trembling. "Macalania Woods... when the Fayth sank below the lake, the woods began to fade. Almost all of it is dying or dead by now."
"Which means the barrier containing this guy couldn't be sustained any longer," concluded Tidus. "And it could explain that weird storm that Gippal and Nooj were talking about."
"It does seem to conform to a pattern... " Baralai said grimly. Yuna looked down at the floor and said nothing.
Why? her mind was screaming. Why is it that no matter how hard we try, Spira just keeps getting thrust back into danger time and again? Why couldn't it all have ended when Sin was destroyed?? First Sin, then Shuyin and Vegnagun, and now this?? How many more relics of Spira's past are going to threaten the Calm before we can finally have peace?? She let out a long sigh and let her arms dangle limp at her sides. All I wanted was for the two of us to be happy...
"Yuna?"
Tidus' voice shook her out of her reverie. She blinked a few times and turned to him, a wan smile on her face. "Sorry... I was just a little overwhelmed for a moment."
"Now is not the time for hesitation." Naia's voice echoed in the small room. "If Malar is awake and is moving, we must act. My brethren, the Elemental Crystals, must be recovered and our powers brought to bear upon him. Only with all four of us may we hope to seal him again."
"So if all four are brought together, you can fight him again?" Rikku asked with a spark of hope in her eye.
"It is not us who must fight. It is you."
Paine sighed. "This just gets better by the minute..."
"We are not independent beings; we never have been. We are weapons. Our powers must be used by those most suited to our natures. Once one of you has accepted a bond with myself or my brethren, our abilities will add to your own many times over." The female form gazed over the party before her, looking at each one in turn before finally stopping and fixing her eyes directly upon one of their party.
She reached forward and touched Yuna on the forehead. "It is you. Will you accept my power?"
A long moment passed. Yuna stood stock-still, not knowing what to say or how to move. I didn't want to be put in this position again; I just wanted to start a new life... But if I don't accept... No, I don't want to imagine that. If this man is capable of everything she says... There's too many people that could be put in jeopardy if I refuse this! Raising her eyes to Naia, she put her right hand forward and nodded. "I accept," she said, almost whispering. The female form nodded, then rapidly dissolved into tendrils of luminescent blue which began wrapping around Yuna's right hand. The crystal disk rose off the floor, pulled into the air by the beams of light and coming to rest on the back of her hand. A blinding flash burst forth, causing everybody to wince and shield their eyes.
My power is now yours. Use it well, Lady Yuna.
Yuna opened her eyes. The crystal rested on the back of her right hand, surrounded by what appeared to be a fingerless glove made of pure silver. Flecks of sapphire accentuated the edges, and a faint blue glow danced on the surface of the lens. She drew in a deep breath and looked back to the others.
"I guess the Gullwings have a new mission now."
To Be Continued...
5: Revelations
The crazed abominations, which Rikku had deduced from a scanning were called Wrathfangs, had torn most of the planking of the watchtower into kindling. Luckily there was still enough space to stand on, which became even more vital as the fiends took to the skies and began divebombing the group. Their skin was remarkably durable, forcing Yuna to eject her normal bullets and reload with armor-piercing "Cheap Shot" rounds. Baralai swung his staff in a wide arc as two Wrathfangs descended upon him, carving both across the chest but inflicting minimal apparent damage. "This is getting a little too hot to handle, guys!!" Rikku shouted as she blasted one of the fiends with an infused slug. "Just keep at them; they can't hold out forever!" Paine yelled back, jabbing her staff in the air and encasing two fiends in blocks of ice.
Tidus jammed a hand into one of his trenchcoat pockets and pulled out a fistful of ingredients. Picking two that seemed to shimmer with magical auras, he crammed them into a small mixing vial and shook the concoction viciously. "Hold on, everyone; this could get interesting!!" he yelled as he chucked the rapidly glowing canister into the air. Everyone ducked just as the airborne Wrathfangs became engulfed in a whirlwind of white light; bolts of holy energy rocketed out from the skies, tearing half of the fiends to shreds. Tidus stared. "What did I just do?!?"
"Looks like you found one of their weaknesses; Holy damage!" Yuna called back with a smile on her face. The smile was short-lived, as the remaining half of the Wrathfang group descended to meet their prey face to face. In a flurry of claws and teeth, they tore into the five with reckless abandon. Tidus and Yuna were both slashed pretty badly, but the fact that they had repositioned back-to-back meant they each took less damage than they would otherwise. Another pair were determined to crush Paine between themselves, but Baralai jumped in at the last second and blocked their attacks, partly with his staff and partly with his own body. Rikku ducked and rolled and just barely managed to avoid being mauled.
"We gotta get through that armor of theirs!!" Rikku said as an intrigued look crossed her face. Quickly she calibrated her gun and checked what techniques she had been able to store within it. "Ah-HA!" she cried out, flipping the gun forward and charging up eldritch energies. "Let's see how these guys enjoy the taste of HEAVEN'S CATARACT!!" A blinding shower of light burst forth from her gun, tearing at the fiends before them. Screeches of pain threatened to deafen every last one of the Gullwings, and as the smoke cleared, it was obvious that their tough hides were charred and weakened.
"We've almost got them now, don't let up!" Yuna gasped, flipping both pistols forward and emptying them into the nearest Wrathfang. Tidus jammed his rifle into the nearest fiend's rapidly approaching maw and pulled the trigger; Baralai staggered up and spun his staff around, unleashing his devastating Glint attack. Shrieks went up from every last fiend as they collapsed and dissolved into pyreflies. Without a second's hesitation, Tidus crammed several healing potions into a mixing vial and tossed it into the air. The canister burst open, showering the five of them with powerful healing salve.
Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief, followed by an incredibly loud *SLAP* that caused Tidus and Yuna to glance around in surprise and Rikku to visibly wince. Baralai just stood there with his eyes wide open, a red mark on his left cheek.
"Baralai, you idiot!!" Paine was visibly shaking and biting her lower lip as she lowered her open hand. "Why did you have to go and do something like that?? You could have been killed!!"
"So could you, Paine," he responded in a soft voice.
"I know the risks; I can take care of myself."
"You were being cornered; I didn't want you outnumbered."
"So you let yourself become a punching bag for those things; do you have any idea how stupid that was????" Paine's voice was almost choking.
Baralai stood silent for a moment, then took a step forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "Paine... I'm sorry. I acted before I thought; I'll be more careful next time."
She looked up at him and saw the way he was looking at her, and slowly her anger faded. I shouldn't have snapped at him like that; he was only trying to help, even if he did something stupid like that... Paine straightened out and brushed a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. "Just don't feel you have to be a human shield for my sake, okay? I don't want anyone getting hurt over me." A barely perceptible tear lingered at the corner of one eye.
A low guttural howl suddenly broke forth from further up in the watchtower. The Gullwings all glanced up and quickly noticed a gaping hole that was gouged into the side of the massive coral reef that made up the tower's central support. Tidus pushed his goggles back on his forehead. "Looks like there's more work to be done," he muttered grimly. "Does anyone need another shot of healing potion before we see what's up there?" The others checked themselves and it appeared that a few scrapes aside, his earlier Mega-Potion mixture had done the trick.
'Time to get serious," Paine said as she punched a sphere on her Grid. Flame and light engulfed her, replacing her Mage's robes with the spiked steel of Dark Knight armor. The change complete, the group made their way up the shattered wooden ramps as fast as possible, towards the opening torn into the ancient reef.
The chasm within the living coral gave off a cerulean glow none would have expected; the walls were permeated with veins of blue crystal that seemed to flicker in response to the presence of the Gullwings. Wind currents drifting through the porous cavern walls, creating the sensation that the cavern was a living, breathing entity. Despite the luminescence of the walls, the heart of the coral reef was steeped in darkness. Yuna shivered, peering desperately into the darkness ahead of them.
"What do you think made that noise?" she pondered aloud.
"It sounded almost like the cry of a whale," Tidus said, "but there was something about it I didn't like at all." He passed a hand over one of the walls beside them. "I've never seen a reef quite like this before..."
A low groan emerged almost directly in front of them. Everyone whipped around in time to see the darkness before them undulate and turn to face them. As the black form extended upwards and outwards, it took on the semblance of not one fiend, but two seemingly fused together. Rikku first thought it was the biggest Flan fiend she had ever seen, but her eyes widened as the skeletal face and torso of a Lich became apparent at the top of its body. Tendrils of slime worked their way along its grossly oversized arms, and clouds of black ichor roiled through its gelatinous lower body. It stared at the horrified humans before it, and then did something no fiend had ever done before. It spoke.
"You... disturb Morlach. Morlach... will end your pain."
Baralai stared. "Did that... THING just speak??"
Rikku started trembling. "E fyhhy ku rusa, E fyhhy ku rusa, E fyhhy ku rusa..."
[Translation: I wanna go home, I wanna go home, I wanna go home...]
The beast let out a guttural roar and shot a cloud of viscous black miasma across the cavern floor, knocking everyone to their knees and blinding Tidus, Paine and Baralai. Rikku and Yuna struggled to their feet as a burning sensation erupted in the pit of their stomach. With a cry of desperation, Yuna fired a high-density bullet into the fiend's gelatinous abdomen, knocking chunks of slime across the room and causing it to growl even louder. Rikku stared at the scan readout of her gun as she attempted to discern what they were dealing with. "Uh-oh! This thing isn't registering at all; all I'm getting is Type Unknown!!" she wailed. The Morlach grinned wickedly and raked its claws across the room, gouging everybody it could reach.
Kicking up to his feet, Tidus blindly slammed two ingredients into a canister and lobbed it up, hoping that he had grabbed the right items. Seconds later, a cool wave washed over the party, the burning sensations faded and eyes were opened again. "Here comes the hurt," Paine growled as she stepped forward and smashed her sword into the ground; scorching sensations coursed through her veins as a wave of Darkness blasted forth from her body. The Morlach growled again, making an effort to seem more angry than injured. "Let's see if it can cope with this!!" Rikku shouted stridently, charging up her gun and blasting a Flan-specific bullet into the heart of the beast. It grunted, but did not seem terribly affected by the charge. "Um... I'm open to suggestions, guys???" Rikku didn't get to say much more as pseudopods began lashing forth from the Morlach, scoring wicked lash marks across everyone's arms and faces.
Baralai snapped the cap on a Mega-Potion, showering the group with healing energies as Tidus fastballed a freshly mixed Archangel bomb into the melee. The vial exploded in a whirl of light, tearing through the Morlach but still not stopping it. "We're going to have to take this fight to it!!" Yuna cried as she blasted the fiend with another enchanted round, then jumped back and activated her Grid. White light engulfed her and she sprang forth clad in Warrior's armor, focusing eldritch energies into the blade of her sword. "Heads up, Yuna!" Tidus called out as he tossed another mixture her way. The Wall potion burst around her, enveloping her just as the Morlach bore down upon her and vomited arcane flames upon her figure. As the flames died down, the Morlach grinned- and suddenly stared as Yuna burst forth from the fire, swinging her blade directly at the beast's head. The blade glowed electric blue and smashed one horn clean off; the Morlach screamed in agony just as Paine dashed forward and plunged her own sword into the fiend's slime-coated ribcage.
"How... can this be?" roared the fiend. "Master said... could not be stopped!!!!" Red flames leaped forth from its eye sockets as it whirled madly, dousing the entire room with fire from its palms. Rikku dropped to her knees with a wail, burns covering her arms and legs. Baralai choked back on the pain and dashed forward, pummeling the Morlach's body with staff strikes.
"I don't care what in the Farplane you are, you don't mess with the Gullwings!!" Tidus shouted, Spherechanging back into his usual Warrior garb. Almost faster than the others could see, he jumped and pushed off from the far wall, arching backwards and swinging Caladbolg around as holy fires burst forth from the blade. With both hands, Tidus slammed the sword directly into the fiend's forehead, crushing the skull and continuing through to obliterate the neck and shoulder blades. The Morlach screeched and shuddered, vomiting up clouds of pyreflies as it collapsed and dissipated into nothingness.
The howling of the wind slowly died down within the cavern. There was no other sound except the five warriors catching their breath. Slowly their eyes became accustomed to the glow of the walls around them.
"That... was not my idea of a good time," Rikku moaned as she gulped down some Hi-Potion.
"I hope it's over," Yuna said as she assumed her White Mage robes again and cast a powerful restorative spell on the party. This accomplished, she changed once again to her normal clothes.
"What I'm still confused about is what that thing was, and why it was here..." Baralai mused. "And I'm not too sure I liked the way it mentioned a Master."
"Hey... Look at this," Tidus interjected as he examined the floor where the fiend had fallen. The others looked over and saw he was holding a perfectly round convex crystal disk, no bigger than his palm. It was a deep blue and seemed to scintillate with the same glow the walls were infused with. "That fiend- the Morlach, or whatever it was- must've dropped it."
Yuna stepped closer. "It looks like something a person might wear, like a pendant."
"Wow... It's really pretty," said Rikku as she sidled up to take a better look.
"Do you think this is what the fiends were after?" Tidus asked.
"I know fiends often become attracted to Spheres, but this doesn't look anything like that," said Baralai. "Maybe you'd better put that thing down and..."
The crystal started to glow a brighter blue than before. Everyone shuddered involuntarily and took a step back. Tidus stumbled and dropped it on the floor before them, but the glow did not stop. If anything, it grew brighter still. A sound began to drift across the cavern, a gentle sound, reminiscent of the Hymn of the Fayth. Everyone stared in wonder as a soft blue whorl of energy began to form above the crystal, gradually taking on the form of a human woman. Her skin and eyes were a brilliant cerulean hue, her hair held tinges of silver and seemed to be in constant motion. She wore little except for flowing aquamarine cloth that seemed to be less cloth and more pure liquid. There was little anyone could do except stare in awe.
Yuna spoke first. "What are... Who are you?"
The woman looked towards Yuna and spoke with a definitive echo in her voice. "It has begun already. As I am awake, so too must he be. And Spira shall be all the worse lest we can stop him once more. We feared it would come to this..."
"What do you mean?" Tidus asked. "Who's awake again? Who has to be stopped?"
The woman looked around the room, gazing at those before her with a kindly yet sad expression on her face.
"... The Immortal."
"I am Naia. The living spirit of Elemental Water, and Keeper of the Water Crystal. Crafted long ago by my Lord Rilian, Master of the Arcane Arts. I, and those like me, were wrought to combat and seal away a great evil, one who should have remained sealed for all time. He was my lord's greatest enemy, and a plague to all who would not bow to his whims or recognize his self-imposed rulership.
"He was once mortal. A student of my lord Rilian, no less. But in his own arrogance he sought power beyond that which could be controlled. He became a student of Chaos magic, a power too great for most men to wield and stay sane. People feared him for what he had become. They sought to unseat him, lest he turn all of Spira into a blighted landscape just like the Plains of Woe. But all attempts were doomed to failure... for he had delved into the darkness so far that he had become something other than human. Could not be killed. Could not be Sent to the Farplane.
"His true name was lost to all. No one knew him by any name except that which he had given himself. Malar."
Naia paused in her tale. Yuna stood with her eyes wide in amazement. Tidus had a look of genuine bewilderment on his face. Rikku was biting her lower lip and Paine arched an eyebrow in the direction of the blue woman. Baralai had dropped his staff and was torn between astounded and shocked.
"Malar?" Yuna said. "I've never heard of that name before. It certainly never cropped up in the teachings of Yevon, or in the history of the Machina War."
"It would appear that more time has passed than I first thought," said Naia thoughtfully. Her image glowed and wavered, almost rippling.
"You said this 'Malar' was something called The Immortal earlier," said Baralai. "That doesn't help much; what records remain in Bevelle have never mentioned such a person."
"Someone who can't be killed or Sent?" Tidus wondered aloud. "I never heard of anyone who could cheat death that way, except for..." He trailed off, his eyes growing wide.
"Yu Yevon." Yuna shuddered at the memory of the ordeal they had undergone more than two years past. The one spirit that had endured for ages, never Sent, always returning in the hideous armor of Sin. "But... But we defeated him, and he had been killed once before, a thousand years ago! He shouldn't still be able to come back!!" she protested.
"I know not of this 'Yu Yevon' of whom you speak," Naia said softly. "Malar was a monster of long, long ago, many ages. Not only did he perfect a means by which he could not die, he became capable of something far worse than any Magus should be allowed to do." She looked at the five before her with sadness in her eyes. "He learned to control the fiends that roam this world. He could command numerous abominations to do his bidding. Just before his imprisonment, worst of all, he had nearly perfected the art of molding them to his own whims... creating fiends of his own design from smaller, weaker ones."
"Which would explain the things we just fought... " Paine said.
"Someone who doesn't die and can control fiends??" Rikku shook her head in disbelief. If that kind of man was running loose in Spira, it could be even worse than Sin, with scores of mutated and enhanced fiends rampaging across the land at his whim! Just then an odd thought struck her. "Hang on a moment. If this guy's all that, why hasn't anyone ever heard about him???"
"That might have to do with the spheres Trema took with him to the Underground," said Baralai. "If what this woman says is correct, any records of this man would had to have been from long before the Machina War, before any of the history that we know today. If those records were among those Trema destroyed, no one today would be able to learn of such a person."
"And now he's apparently on the loose again," said Tidus. "But if he was supposed to be sealed away, what was it that broke him out? And how?"
Naia turned and said, "It was only the combined power of myself and those like me that imprisoned him. There were four of us originally; hopefully the others are still somewhere in Spira. Earth, Fire, Air and Water joined together and countered Malar's Chaos magic, binding him deep beneath the surface of the Plains of Woe. Our task complete, we were consigned to hiding places, to be awakened in the event our service was needed again. The barrier containing The Immortal would not need to be sustained by us, as it was fed from two great fonts of power. To the South, the Farplane entrance at Guadosalam; to the North, the mystic forest of Macalania."
"So he was imprisoned between two... great... Hey, wait a minute!!" Rikku exclaimed. "You mean... this Malar guy was sealed under..."
"The Thunder Plains," continued Paine. "And if something were to, say, happen to one of those fonts of energy..."
"The forest." Yuna's voice was trembling. "Macalania Woods... when the Fayth sank below the lake, the woods began to fade. Almost all of it is dying or dead by now."
"Which means the barrier containing this guy couldn't be sustained any longer," concluded Tidus. "And it could explain that weird storm that Gippal and Nooj were talking about."
"It does seem to conform to a pattern... " Baralai said grimly. Yuna looked down at the floor and said nothing.
Why? her mind was screaming. Why is it that no matter how hard we try, Spira just keeps getting thrust back into danger time and again? Why couldn't it all have ended when Sin was destroyed?? First Sin, then Shuyin and Vegnagun, and now this?? How many more relics of Spira's past are going to threaten the Calm before we can finally have peace?? She let out a long sigh and let her arms dangle limp at her sides. All I wanted was for the two of us to be happy...
"Yuna?"
Tidus' voice shook her out of her reverie. She blinked a few times and turned to him, a wan smile on her face. "Sorry... I was just a little overwhelmed for a moment."
"Now is not the time for hesitation." Naia's voice echoed in the small room. "If Malar is awake and is moving, we must act. My brethren, the Elemental Crystals, must be recovered and our powers brought to bear upon him. Only with all four of us may we hope to seal him again."
"So if all four are brought together, you can fight him again?" Rikku asked with a spark of hope in her eye.
"It is not us who must fight. It is you."
Paine sighed. "This just gets better by the minute..."
"We are not independent beings; we never have been. We are weapons. Our powers must be used by those most suited to our natures. Once one of you has accepted a bond with myself or my brethren, our abilities will add to your own many times over." The female form gazed over the party before her, looking at each one in turn before finally stopping and fixing her eyes directly upon one of their party.
She reached forward and touched Yuna on the forehead. "It is you. Will you accept my power?"
A long moment passed. Yuna stood stock-still, not knowing what to say or how to move. I didn't want to be put in this position again; I just wanted to start a new life... But if I don't accept... No, I don't want to imagine that. If this man is capable of everything she says... There's too many people that could be put in jeopardy if I refuse this! Raising her eyes to Naia, she put her right hand forward and nodded. "I accept," she said, almost whispering. The female form nodded, then rapidly dissolved into tendrils of luminescent blue which began wrapping around Yuna's right hand. The crystal disk rose off the floor, pulled into the air by the beams of light and coming to rest on the back of her hand. A blinding flash burst forth, causing everybody to wince and shield their eyes.
My power is now yours. Use it well, Lady Yuna.
Yuna opened her eyes. The crystal rested on the back of her right hand, surrounded by what appeared to be a fingerless glove made of pure silver. Flecks of sapphire accentuated the edges, and a faint blue glow danced on the surface of the lens. She drew in a deep breath and looked back to the others.
"I guess the Gullwings have a new mission now."
To Be Continued...