For Achiyo’s theme song as a SAM I decided to steal the Theme of the Angry Lobster – a.k.a. Alight (Storm) from Fire Emblem Fates. It sounds like a party. (Her Maiden’s Rhapsody gear kind of makes her look like a little Angry Lobster?) For a more romantic song, I might also use Break the Sword of Justice from the old Tsubasa Chronicle OST.
You no longer have to cook bacon bread for the bacon bread guy?? I distinctly remember that being a thing. It was selling for exhorbitant prices on the market board as culinarians fed the demand.
Chapter 75: Angel of Blood
“Vivienne,” Achiyo said, beckoning her out to an area of the Prima Vista’s audience seating away from the other adventurers, “I want to talk to you.”
Vivienne froze for a second. This was Achiyo being unusually direct, and her face was giving nothing away. Which meant this was Achiyo being very upset. If they were to spar right now, it would probably come out even more clearly. And honestly, she’d prefer that. “All right.” Shite, she needed to apologize for raging at her yesterday. With words.
Achiyo took a deep breath and stared Vivienne in the eyes. “I didn’t appreciate the language you used yesterday to correct my position. I know I made a mistake, but I don’t like being called stupid because of it. What you call other people is between you and them, but I don’t want to be treated like that. …I put up with enough of that when I was in Doma Castle.”
Vivienne bowed her head awkwardly. “I’m sorry. You’re right.” Apologizing was painful. But she did respect Achiyo, so she deserved an apology. “I… will watch my mouth. And my temper. I don’t mean it personally.” The only people she meant her curses for were their enemies. It was probably more a surprise that she hadn’t screwed up like this sooner. Aentfryn gave as good as he got. R’nyath saw through her insults and shrugged them off. But Achiyo was different. And she knew that.
Achiyo relaxed a bit. “I know you don’t. But it hurts in the moment. I understand if you’re angry with me. I would wish not to make you angry, but it would not be the first time I have done so. Just don’t call me insults.”
“Right,” Vivienne said awkwardly, remembering the last time Achiyo had done something admittedly stupid, Vivienne had blown up on her, and then had had to wait moons to apologize. “Anyway… it’s not like we’ve drilled this formation, with you on offence instead of defence, very much. At all.”
“And against such powerful enemies, no less,” Achiyo said. “I am learning. I think I prefer defending. But still, I should not make such basic mistakes.”
“Tell your samurai fanboy that,” Vivienne grumbled. “What does he think he’s doing, trying to take all the enemy’s attention? That’s my job!”
Achiyo made a rueful face. “True. I must talk to him again. If he tries it again, you have my full permission to scold him.”
“Scold?” Vivienne had to snort. “You make me sound like a nagging nursemaid. I’ll terrify the trousers off him.”
“As long as he stays alive,” Achiyo said grimly. “His father is correct: he has potential. But if he carries on in this way, he won’t live long enough to see it.”
Vivienne nodded. Hiroari Tatewaki was of little interest to her. Figuring out the next step in this quest was her focus, not that she could do much personally yet.
“Wolf Burglar!” bellowed Shigure the samurai, at the retreating Lupin bearing the immobile form of Hildibrand Helidor Maximilian Manderville upon his back. “You have nowhere left to run! Surrender!”
At such an earnest demand, the Wolf Burglar began to run even faster, glancing back at them all – Shigure, Nashu, Alphinaud, Alisiae, Chuchupa, and Hildibrand’s favourite zombie minion who was for some reason in the Far East and for some other reason also dressed as a werewolf. “Gah! So they’ve finally caught up to me!”
“Cor! He looks exactly like my sketch!” Nashu cheered as the chasing group sprinted after.
“He looks nothing like,” Alphinaud muttered.
“Well, we can’t all be disinclined professionals like you,” Alisaie retorted.
“Your campaign of thievery comes to an end this day!” declaimed Shigure. “Aye, this day the bakufu will have their man! Err… that is to say, their Lupin! …Stop, damn you!”
Suddenly they all became aware of a hissing noise. Chuchupa looked over and found Nashu bearing aloft three of her bombs, all in different colours, threaded together on a stick. “The inspector’s still not snapped out of it, which means it’s time for a triple serving of Nashu’s Delight – dango style!” Before anyone could stop her, she heaved them forwards and they tumbled down the hill with great alacrity, gaining on the Lupin and his burden with every moment.
“Steady on-” Alphinaud began.
“Yasss!” Chuchupa yelled. “Get ‘im!”
The bombs hit a bump and arced into the air. Hildibrand began to twitch, and then screamed “BOOOOOOOOOMBS!” like a girly high-pitched foghorn.
“Shut up, you stupid statue!” panted the Lupin, then looked back. “Bugger me, are those bombs!?”
Hildibrand, thrashing wildly against his bindings, reached out and caught the ‘dango stick’ that the bombs were threaded on before it struck them.
“Idiot!” yelled the Lupin desperately. “Get rid of them! Get rid of them before you kill us both!”
Hildibrand obediently flung the stick with all his might… at such an angle that the bombs slipped off and the stick went flying like a javelin. The hapless pair had just time to look at the bombs now on the ground around them before the explosives detonated, sending bright red and green fireworks bursting all over the natural stone bridge.
“That’s real pretty,” Chuchupa said. “Yer best work yet, Nashu!”
“Thanks!” Nashu said, jumping up and down with glee.
“I’m pretty sure that’s bad,” Alisaie said, giggling heartily nonetheless. “Alphinaud-”
“I’m ready,” he said, hefting his codex.
The smoke cleared. No one was left on the bridge. “Oh no!” Alphinaud cried. “Are they…”
“Heeeeeelp!” they heard faintly from off the side of the bridge. “Chuchupa! Nashu! Anyone!”
They ran closer, and saw that the Lupin was clinging on to one side of the bridge, and Hildibrand was dangling off the other side. “I suppose we ought to save the inspector…” Alisaie said.
“Forget Hildi!” Chuchupa said. “He’ll be fine. Now’s our chance to catch the Wolf Burglar!”
“Yes, don’t worry about the inspector!” Nashu said. “He survived a trip back from Dalamud, so this is nothing! Let’s get that Wolf Burglar instead!”
They heard a sigh, a scrape, and then a… strangely spinny thump from Hildibrand’s side of the bridge.
“He what?” asked Alphinaud. “I should not keep being surprised at this point, and yet…”
“Surely an exaggeration,” Alisaie said.
“I weren’t there, but I’d stake me ship on it,” Chuchupa said.
Shigure took this all in stride and went to loom over the Lupin. “I told you before, Wolf Burglar – you have nowhere left to run. Fall, on the other hand…”
The Wolf Burglar looked down at the drop, then back up to smirk at Shigure. “Hmmm… If that’s how it’s gonna be, then fall it is!” Before their eyes, he let go. A riding hawk dove like a whip past the bridge, and they whirled to see the Wolf Burglar on its back, grinning maniacally. “Never thought I’d come this close to getting caught. S’pose it’s my own fault for trying to nick a hefty prize like a statue… But if the statue ain’t even a statue, then there’s no reason for me to stick around, is there? Better luck next time, thief-takers!”
Shigure punched the air angrily as the hawk rapidly dwindled into the distance. “Gah! The nerve of that villain!”
There was a rapid drumming of footsteps, and then Hildibrand appeared before them, his clothes the worse for wear as they usually ended up being. “I say, Chuchupa… I have come to expect such cold, calculating behavior from dear Nashu, but not you!”
“I seen yer feet stickin’ out the ground too many times to believe aught but that ye prefer hittin’ the ground,” Chuchupa said carelessly.
Nashu jumped for joy. “Hooray! Inspector Hildibrand is back! Nothing like a brush with certain death to get you back in the game, am I right, Inspector?”
“What manner of sorcery is this?” asked Shigure with befuddlement. “The Eoruzean Gentleman – this statue stands before me, speaking and gesticulating as if a living, breathing being…” Well, she’d pegged Shigure for not being the sharpest knife in the box, given how he’d happily gone along with everything else that had happened so far, but she hadn’t thought he was actually stupid.
The Gentle Dead Man in the werewolf costume raised an eyebrow at Shigure. “I trust I needn’t remind you I too am capable of such motions despite neither living nor breathing, but more to the point, Master Zombibrand is no statue.”
Nashu nodded emphatically. “Quite right! He’s an agent of enquiry! Inspector extraordinaire!”
“The son of Godbert Manderville, a real person whom we have met on several occasions,” Alphinaud put in under his breath.
Shigure looked around helplessly. Chuchupa gave him an encouraging nod.
“Good sir, by your garb I gather you are a samurai? Am I then correct in assuming we are in the Far East?” Hildibrand asked, and they nodded. “Ohohoho! As I wake from gentle slumber and find myself in a foreign land, who should I be greeted by but… a Far Eastern fan?” He posed, and flexed, and gave his trademark smile. Chuchupa, Nashu, and the zombie dutifully applauded. Shigure, Alphinaud, and Alisie stared at them – though then the twins, not to be left out, offered a couple politely bemused claps.
“But ho, what is this?” cried Hildibrand. “Already my keen investigator’s sense has alerted me to the presence of a petitioner in need.” Abruptly he took off sprinting, ungodly fast, wildly meandering across the hills of the island. “I must away! For honor and justice and a hard-boiled egg!”
Nashu leapt up and down giddily and began to run after him. “Wait for me, Inspector! You know I can’t run that fast!”
Achiyo was blissfully unaware of the chaos unfolding on the Isle of Bekko only a few malms away, standing on the edge of the Hell’s Lid with Aentfryn, Tam, Soroban, Tataru, and Hiroari. “This is the place?” she said, gazing up at the steep slope oozing lava before her.
“So I am instructed,” Soroban said. “Let’s see… according to the letter…” He chanted what sounded like a spell, waving a jewelled dagger in the air before him, and a piece of the lava pool right before them flickered and vanished, revealing a tunnel below the semi-molten rock, wobbling with heat. “It looks rather… hot in there. I do hope this isn’t a bad idea…”
Achiyo eyed the tunnel warily. It looked like it was about to collapse under its own gooey weight at any moment. “I feel I should cast Hallowed Ground simply to set foot in there…” Once more she was dressed in her customary armour, with sword and shield.
“‘Tis a passage blessed by the auspices, is it not?” Hiroari exclaimed. “Then we have naught to fear!” He jumped in with both feet, cutting off Achiyo’s startled cry.
“That was only a faerie tale-” Soroban began.
“Come on!” Hiroari called, beckoning them onward. He certainly did not seem to be burning up, and the tunnel was large enough to accommodate even Aentfryn. So with a look of distrust at the tunnel roof, she followed.
The tunnel did not collapse on top of them killing them instantly, and in fact it did not last long, and its walls turned to hardened rock before they emerged into a large chamber full of churning magma far below. A path of solid stone before them wound high above it, leading them deeper into the heart of the volcano. Hiroari was not waiting but was swatting with his katana at small fiery beasts, crabs and such, and trying to dodge their flaming pincers. “Hiroari!” Achiyo called, scolding, trying to get him to slow down and allow her to protect him. But he wasn’t stopping. “Aentfryn, if you would…”
Hiroari was yanked back, and Achiyo smoothly ran forward to take his place, swinging her sword around in an arc at all the creatures still alive. Between them, the danger did not last long, and before Hiroari could go running off again she turned to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Stop. Listen to me. We talked about this.”
“But they’re just little-” he began.
“Pea-brained apkallu!” Aentfryn thundered. “Your life in these battles depends upon the grace of your defender and your healer! If you try to take point uncalled for once more, we’ll let you fight all the beasts single-handed and die alone! We’re here to protect the innocent, not the stupid!” Eos nodded and swatted Hiroari’s helm with a bonk noise.
Hiroari was cowed for a moment, straightening his helm… “What’s an apkallu?”
“Focus,” Achiyo told him. She’d told him why he couldn’t be a defender; he had the wrong kind of armour enchantments, he didn’t know any defensive spells. She’d told him about teamwork and strategy. She missed Constaint, who had also admired her, had also tried very hard to impress her, and had put thoughtful work into becoming the best adventurer he could be in fulfilling that goal. “I will not let you die, but woe betide you should you test Vivienne’s patience. You heard her curse in anger at me, her friend. She has even less reason to withhold her scorn from you.”
She held his eyes until he gulped at the thought of facing Vivienne’s ire, and he looked away, nodding sheepishly.
Now that she did not have to worry so much about her foolish, impetuous charge, she could look around at the volcano, at its ferocious, deadly wonder – for who was ever able to walk inside the heart of a mountain and live? At Sohm Al in Abalathia one could venture into the cone, but not deep under it like here. And the further they ventured, the more the magma gave way before them, opening a safe path for them – though fiery demons ambushed them with flame and molten rock.
They came through the flames and into cooler caverns, with pools of water where strange creatures peeked stalked eyes out at them, and glowing crystals lit odd corners, shimmering off the slick wet walls and floor. A weasel, of all things, frolicked in front of them, sniffed at them, climbed to the top of Tam’s lance lightning quick, and then zipped off into the tunnels ahead, pausing to look back at them. They followed.
And the beauty of the previous caves was nothing compared to when they emerged into a wide space with the ceiling and underground lake glowing with bioluminescent stars, vast and stunning. Elegant traditional Doman bridges covered gaps between little islands to a well-lit temple, with paved paths between them illuminated by ornate lanterns. They walked slowly, staring about them in awe; Achiyo felt a mysterious grandeur from it all.
Then they saw the tiny turtle that was distinctly waiting for them, and she really had to fight the urge to coo over it.
It had been a couple sennights since the adventurers had been needed on the Prima Vista, but they had returned for more news. The Sharlayan Archon, Mikoto, gestured to the chunk of auracite that Jenomis had reportedly found in the Dalmasca desert.
“The Otius is no ordinary crystal, even discounting its obvious historical importance. The specimen is more than a simple manifestation of elementally aspected energies – it is, rather, an aetherial lodestone whose facilitation of both the absorption and transmission of distinct-frequency NRR-type harmonic vibrations has been observed to promote aetherial amplification. The resultant neuro-harmonic disturbance allows for a highly unique emittance of CPRS waves that, instead of radiating outward with a determinate factor of dispersal, instead resonate inward at a frequency so labored, my estimates place the rate of VRT decay at upwards of several centuries… though I must admit I lack sufficient variates to complete a truly comprehensive graphical assessment.”
Kekeniro nodded.
“Um,” said Yllamse.
“What?” said Petrus.
“Do I need to know?” Vivienne asked.
“Academics,” Aentfryn muttered, though he had looked like he at least partly understood to Achiyo’s eyes.
“…Hmph,” Cid said. “While that explanation may elicit admiring nods from your professors at the academy, it will earn you only blank looks here as you see. Take a deep breath and try again – this time in a language those of us without the Echo might comprehend.”
“Nope, the Echo’s no help at all,” Yllamse said cheerfully.
Mikoto blushed and twiddled her fingers awkwardly. “My apologies. I merely thought-”
“Apologies will see us no nearer to an answer,” Cid said, rather impatiently. “A simpler explanation will.”
Mikoto bit her lip, thinking. “Simpler… Right… Um… Aether is not only the building block of all things material, but those immaterial as well. Thoughts, memories, feelings, one’s very will are all understood to be aetherial phenomena, and can be measured as such. Unlike most crystals, which only can emit elemental energies, auracite is tuned not only to absorb aether, but aether specific to the immaterial. That aether is then stored and multiplied within its crystalline confines until external stimuli precipitate release.”
“Okay, explain it to us like we’re really dumb,” R’nyath said encouragingly.
“My friend, you’ve started building robots for fun,” Kekeniro said.
“Shhhhh!” R’nyath told him.
“Naw, explain it to us like we’re really dumb,” Chuchupa said.
Mikoto looked even more flustered. “Uh… Ahem. Under appropriate conditions, a strong will or desire can become imprinted upon the auracite and stored until fomentation, at which time the desire becomes manifest-”
“Fomen…tation?” Ramza hazarded, blinking.
Cid sighed and shook his head. “What my studious young friend is trying to say is that the Otius takes one’s deepest fantasies and makes them reality.”
Mikoto also blinked, as if finally realizing what they all meant. “Ah. Yes. Yes, that is… simpler. You… may choose to think of it as a process akin to that of summoning a primal.”
Every one of the Scions looked up abruptly. “Primal?” Yllamse asked eagerly.
A moogle had infiltrated the Prima Vista – two of them, in fact, but the foolish one had gone running off into the wilderness to get himself killed. Which was mostly Ramza’s fault; he was more bitchy than ever, Chuchupa considered. Like he hated everyone and everything, probably deflecting from hating himself most of all. But she weren’t no psychoanalyst, and if nobody else punched his lights out while she was off rescuing moogles, that was their affair.
For now, she was following the other moogle, hopeful that he’d have some sort of brother-locating-sense. Naomi, Crim, and R’nyath had come with her to fill out the rescue team. And what was that ahead? A flash of white in the Doman twilight, against a sheen of pinkish-red. Then a bright flash of a spell, and a hunk of blazing rock fell from the sky with a colourful explosion, nearly hitting Montblanc.
“Yow! Eowch! Help!” the moogle cried, waving his axe wildly and trying to flee, pursued by a pair of red chocobos. Someone had told Chuchupa, since her arrival in the East, that red chocobos were even more dangerous than yellow or black ones. Time to find out if that were true!
She woke up a few minutes later with a giant headache and Naomi crouching over her. “Get up! Crim’s about to get trampled!”
“Godsdammit!” Chuchupa sprang up, waving her axe, in time to see Crim get kicked across the field, his gun flying from his hand.
“Crim!” Naomi cried, and ran to heal her husband.
“Ye feathered braggart!” Chuchupa said, then stopped, looking up. “Sod off! I ain’t fallin’ for that again!”
She jumped back as the Chocometeor exploded on the ground in front of her. “Wah!” R’nyath yelped, jumping back on the other side. “These spells are no joke!”
“By the Twelve…” croaked Crim, leaning over and holding his side even as Naomi channelled aether into his injuries; he’d definitely busted several ribs. “Should we call for back-up?”
“We got this! Yarrr!” Chuchupa told them, closing with the chocobos to cut them down to size. Now they had the measure of the beasts, and between the two machinists, her axe, and Naomi’s frantic healing, the red chocobos squawked and lay still.
“Thank you, thank you!” gasped their wayward moogle. “You saved my life!”
“Montblanc!” scolded Hurdy, his brother. “What were you thinking!?”
Lina had come along too, though staying well back from the action, and now she came to wave her finger at Montblanc. “Have you any idea what you put your brother through!? He has been worried sick!”
Montblanc slumped in midair, his pom and paws drooping. “Both Hurdy and Ramza were right all along. I am a failure. A flop. A flailing flapping foppish failure, kupo. How could I play the part of a hero if I cannot even ruffle the feathers of a single measly bird. The audience would see right through me like the spineless jellyfish I am.”
“Well, those were some pretty tough chocobos, even for us heroes o’ legend,” Chuchupa admitted. “Right, guys?”
“Aye,” Crim wheezed, Xaela tail stiff with pain. Naomi was still healing his ribs. “I’ll feel that for some time to come.”
“And Chuchupa got more than bopped on the head!” R’nyath said. “Those chocobos were terrifying and not to be taken lightly!”
“Right, and also, not everyone can be a hero, not even most heroes!” Lina said. “Yes, the bards sing of the man who deals the final blow, but what of his cadre of loyal companions? Do you think Delita united Ivalice on his own? Do you think… Chuchupa here was alone when she fought to liberate Ala Mhigo?”
“Yeah! I mean, I did punch the dragon’s tail,” Chuchupa said. “But I’m never alone on the battlefield!”
“Or, looking at it another way, not all wars are won on the front lines,” R’nyath said. “I know all about that!”
Montblanc considered for a moment. “But of course they are not! Every campaign needs its brilliant architect – the mastermind who moves the pieces across the board! I, Montblanc, can be that mastermind!”
“That was quick,” muttered Hurdy.
“Um, no,” Naomi said. “That’s Kekeniro’s job.”
“Or Alphie’s,” Chuchupa said.
Lina shook her head. “Let us not dwell on the details. The day is saved, and Montblanc has escaped sans scratch or singe to show for it. Let’s return to the Prima Vista before our luck runs out.”
The others were staring up at the Ridorana lighthouse. Chuchupa was standing at the very edge of the beach, peering down into the fathomless abyss.
Achiyo approached her. “Don’t even think of it.”
Chuchupa grinned innocently at her. “Think o’ what, Princess? Taking my manacutter and tryin’ to see how far down it goes? Perish the thought!”
“Right,” Achiyo said, completely unconvinced. “Do remember that although we have survived ‘certain death’ many times before, we are informed that not a single explorer has ever returned from this… chasm.”
“Yeah, but on t’other hand, how many ‘no one’s come back alive’s have we made it through? More’n a few! I bet if we all work together-”
“If we all work together, we can lose the entire primal-slaying team in one fell swoop,” Achiyo said, though she was not terribly serious. “If there is a need to find our way in, we shall, but for now our path lies elsewhere. Come. It sounds like the others have located the Bangaa captain.”
As they headed up the stairs towards the lighthouse, a gunshot echoed between the buildings. Achiyo and Chuchupa and several other adventurers nearby broke into a run, cresting the stairs to see Lina fallen back on her tail, staring in horror at a bullet crater smoking between her feet; Vivienne in front of her, having swung her greatsword, and Ba’Gamnan fallen – though not to any wound from her sword. The other Bangaa clustered around him, begging him to return to them.
But Ba’Gamnan held up the Duma auracite, reciting spell-like words, and light erupted from the stone, blinding and pure.
When they could see again, Ba’Gamnan’s body stood once more, but a fell glow lit up his eyes, and his right arm, that held the Duma, was swollen beyond natural means, clutching the stone in gigantic claws. He let out a feral roar… and vanished.
Vivienne looked around and found Achiyo’s gaze. “Time to go to work.”
As they prepared to head in, Ramza and his father yammered on about some legendary city of clockwork, and how the Garleans might be descended from the inhabitants of said city… Chuchupa had to admit that this tower did look more like a city than a lighthouse. A rather ramshackle tower-city… built over many years, it must be, with no one in charge of making sure the exterior followed any coherent design. That… made it more interesting, probably?
But if she wasn’t a psychoanalyst, she definitely wasn’t an architect. She was a pirate! And up first to fight, some creature carrying a giant water jar. Either it was extremely heavily armoured, or it was a robot. Its form was vaguely like a Bangaa, but with really stumpy legs that floated above the ground.
Vivienne caught Hiroari’s eye. “Am I going to have to let that thing turn you into a fine paste, or are you going to let me do my job?”
“My job!” Chuchupa said, not caring if she was undermining the boy’s education. “Lemme at him!”
“I am enlightened now!” Hiroari said, both pompous and defensive. “My part is to slay that beast, and I shall do so! You just keep it off me!”
Vivienne rolled her eyes and looked at Kekeniro. “Who do you want in front?”
Kekeniro checked his grimoire. “Chuchupa can take it for now. Keep an eye on that jar, it’s completely suffused with aether!”
That was a difficult fight. Many adventurers almost drowned when the monster tipped over his jar, flooding the plaza with surging waves of real water. Sisina, the little White Mage, was nearly washed off the plaza, off the island, and carried out to sea entirely. Quick thinking from Captain… Alinore today, she was wearing a blue coat, had saved her healer companion, though they were both pummelled by the waves within an inch of their lives. Tam, for another, was very cautious in that fight, and in fact seemed most interested in jumping on top of the water jar, evidently reasoning that the safest place to be away from the water was the place the water was coming from.
But defeating the creature itself was not so difficult. For all that it hit hard, they hit harder, and eventually it disintegrated into metal and water and aether.
Inside the tower, they were met with storey after storey of streets, small squares, and endless apartments. Across from the entrance, a great column of water was pumped upwards. Tharash groaned. “I hate stairs.”
“Then it’s a good thing we shan’t be taking many,” Ramza said acidly from the back of the group. “Look there – the transportation nodes remain functional.” His tone turned awed. “That they remain so after all these centuries… it is a marvel.”
“Right, so how’s this work…?” Chuchupa asked, stepping on the glowing yellow circle. A glowing yellow bubble formed around her and took her upwards quickly, depositing her on another street higher up. “Hm. Reminds me o’ the Void Ark. But better.”
They ascended higher and higher, towards the top of the water column, which evaporated in a ceiling of fire. Archaeologist Li Mei was falling behind to look at everything – until Lina called her onwards. Ramza wiped his forehead with his poofy sleeve. “The heat… is almost unbearable. Could this be the heart of the lighthouse’s beacon?”
“Gee, wise guy, how should we know?” Naomi snarked at him.
“Peace,” Achiyo said. “It stands to reason that a great lighthouse must need a great fire to light its signal.”
“Must be wretched for the folks living up here on these levels though,” Khem said.
Their next use of the transporters took them up to the flame chamber, where they were met by… another monster. He was fighting them with… a clock hand? Somehow it made sense. She wasn’t thinking too hard about it.
After that sweltering battle, Ramza actually did something useful while they rested – he found another transporter. But Chuchupa looked outwards and upwards – the city opened around them to the sky. Beside them, the column of water, no longer blocked by the uncontrolled flames of the beacon, flowed up into the bottom of a platform that held an aetheryte-sized crystal. And that was the top of the lighthouse-city.
Well, they’d been to the top, and not found Ba’Gamnan. Maybe there was a basement somewhere. Chuchupa hopped on the transporter… and found herself ascending again.
Into the bottom of an even larger structure that had not been visible from the ground. White stone and huge, huge cogwheels met her eyes everywhere she looked, many of the wheels still spinning. Montblanc was singing a popular Roegadyn folk song about walking 500 malms, except he’d changed the words to be ‘climb 500 yalms’ which… was considerably less impressive since magitek had done it all for him. There were more trees here, too – well, the lighthouse below had not had any trees, not much greenery at all, in fact.
A bunch of weird golems marched out to fight them, at least until Alisaie dumped a bunch of meteors on their heads. Li Mei and Kekeniro were both distracted, reading tablets scattered about on the ground. “Defence network, huh?”
“Wait, is this poetry in praise of prime numbers?” Li Mei said. “How erudite! Clearly an educated civilization. Or at least a very nerdy individual.”
“Come on!” Chuchupa waved them on. “We got the way forrard clear! Ye can come back with all the nerds ye like later!”
They came to a wide platform. Somehow Chuchupa knew it was for science purposes. Or maybe it was just because of the giant robot who greeted them with a mechanical voice. “WARNING! WARNING! ENTRY PROHIBITED!”
After the adventurers had endured a barrage of lasers, stomps, punches, bombs, drills, crushers, and electrical storms, the robot stopped. “ANOMALOUS INTELLIGENCE LEVELS DETECTED. REEDUCATION AUTHORIZED. BOOTING BASIC COMPUTATION PROTOCOL.”
“I think it just told us to go back to school,” said Alphinaud. Then as suddenly a single number flashed in front of Chuchupa’s eyes and circular panels lit up on the ground, he yelped. “I was joking!”
“Okay, so my number is five… what do I do with it?” Skaentu asked anxiously. “I don’t do numbers well under pressure!”
Neither did Chuchupa, but she didn’t care – what did numbers have to do with fighting?
“Oh! I get it!” Kekeniro said. “Defence network! Stand in the circle-” he began to explain what the robot’s laconic instructions failed to convey. Chuchupa hit the robot again.
The robot was a fearsome taskmaster. Oh, not for the math, though Chuchupa was pretty sure she’d gotten three out of four questions wrong, and the fourth only right by luck. Nor for the funny little dance he did while waiting for them. But those lasers… ouch. Half the team had been dropped for not sprinting fast enough.
Now they rested and ate what food they had brought, as those who had been wounded were carefully tended by their healers. Petrus was still complaining that the robot had said ‘one’ wasn’t a prime number. “The sun is starting to descend,” noted Aghai Kha, looking to the gaps in the walls. “It will be well if we may complete our quest by nightfall.”
“So we still exist in space and time,” Tharash said. “What a pity.”
Vivienne snorted. “You miss the World of Darkness that much, do you?”
“No,” said both men at once.
“I simply find the rules of existence to be tiresome at times,” Tharash said. “Of course, is it really real? Or do we simply believe it’s real, while reality is something else?”
“Oh, speaking of the sun, I figured out something,” Kekeniro said. “And it made me feel really dumb.”
“You are the opposite of dumb,” R’nyath said. “What did you figure out?”
Kekeniro hung his head. “So Hydaelyn is round, right? Like, the entire star? We knew that.”
“Yes?” Alinore said. “Every sailor needs to know that, at least.”
“So when it’s morning in Eorzea, it’s evening here. And I could have figured that out as soon as I noticed my chronometer was off. But I didn’t until Cid flew us all those thousands of malms.” He buried his face in his hands. “I made such a big deal out of it, and it was so simple.”
Achiyo smiled and patted his shoulder. “I did not think on it at all. I imagine few have ever made the trip in such a short time, or had such strict timekeeping enough to notice.”
Hiroari had dropped his riceball down the front of his armour. “The star is round? Are you sure? It doesn’t look round.”
Chuchupa cackled. “Cuz she’s big, boy!”
“Then why doesn’t the water fall off!?” he rejoined, pointing outside. “Except into the Ridorana Cataract?”
“Why don’t your head fall off?”
“Again, because Hydaelyn is very large,” Reid said. “…Wait. Do we have to explain gravity too?”
“Does it matter?” Aghai Kha said impatiently. “It will not change my actions to know what shape the star is or how water lies upon it. All I need to know is that it does. The star could be shaped like a buuz for all I care.”
“What’s ‘gravity’, kupo?” asked Montblanc. “I thought it was gravy that hadn’t been strained properly.”
“Enough,” Ramza interrupted. “This discussion is moronic. Continue it on your own time. May we go?”
“You’re not the one fighting,” Vivienne growled.
Achiyo stood. “I think we may consider moving on, yes. The others are relying on us.”
“What are we doing here again?” Chuchupa asked. Ramza folded his arms dramatically and turned away from them all.
Up another transporter and they came once again under the blue sky, surrounded by white buildings slathered in green moss, trees, and flowers. But Achiyo had no time to appreciate it, for ahead of them was Ba’Gamnan with his bloated arm. Hearing the clatter of their approach, he whirled to face them. His eyes still glowed yellow, and his voice was gravelly with rage. “Long have I waited for this moment, Garlean swine! Come! The blood of my fallen brothers feeds my hate!”
“Please, wait!” Achiyo called to him, though she did not think it would work.
He held up the Duma, which floated free and began to glow, drawing aether to itself that crackled with power. She could no longer see the Bangaa under all that light.
Suddenly the light swelled to titanic proportions, and coalesced into a monstrous robotic draconic beast. Its head was like a skull, with a grim light in its eyes, and in its chest looked like a small sun.
“Aw, man,” R’inwa complained from the back. “This looks similar to the man that we fought in Lesalia. So it’s going to be hard.”
“Did you expect anything less?” Tharash said.
Achiyo shook her head, her silver-green hair flowing loose in the wind – her samurai armour had not come with a helmet. “As we defeated Argath, so shall we defeat this enemy. Hold firm!”
She looked to Kekeniro, who pointed. “Loup, you’re up for starters! Everyone keep your eyes open! That orb is heavily guarded so that’s our ultimate target!”
Loup grunted and leapt forward. He might not be full-grown yet, but behind his laconic glares he was passionately competent. And behind him the adventurers surged like a wave, some like Chuchupa yelling war cries, some like R’nyath laughing with nervous exhilaration. Achiyo gripped the hilt of her katana, blurred forward, and drew with one smooth motion. The enchanted steel barely made a scratch on their enemy.
Her hair floated behind her like a school of fish as her blade swept along the legs of the monster, her tail swaying to counterbalance her. Finally she felt that she had mastered her new weapon, that she was using it to the fullest. She was so light, even in this armour, so fast, so effortless. If she had fought Zenos like this, would she have needed three tries to beat him? But she had not known how to fight as a samurai back then. Her heart thrummed as she sidestepped a magical void summoned by the monster, her eyes shining with the thrill of battle. She felt unstoppable.
The monster also felt unstoppable. They were striking it with all their power, and yet its aether had barely been dented. It was difficult to get close to that giant glowing orb from where she stood upon the ground, and doubly so to reach it without being trampled, especially when the beast decided to charge ahead – sending Loup flying and prompting Kekeniro to sub in Chuchupa. How the tiny Warrior could hold the huge monster’s attention… well, she had an outsized personality.
Chaos ebbed and flowed on the battlefield, parting before the monster’s dashes, following it to rain down destruction upon its wings and hindquarters. Kekeniro breathlessly called out positions and strategies, even while he summoned Bahamut to blast the monster. With a crash, the orb shattered. The monster howled in pain and rage, aether churning around it, and it began to glow red with the heat of its fury.
“My wounds give me strength!” it roared, and charged helter-skelter about the arena, almost not stopping at all. They were winning!
Chuchupa smacked her axe square into its chin. “Hold still, ye great lump!”
“Yes, hold him still!” Achiyo cried, and aether surged into her limbs. Faster, faster, fastest, she cut as to leave nothing left before her.
Her last stroke sent aether bursting through the skeletal body from tail to nose, blasting out the other end. The creature howled once more, uttering threats, and burst into aether. And the Duma, which clattered to the ground.
Most of the adventurers cheered. R’inwa collapsed on his back. “Gosh, he just wouldn’t die.”
“Almost as bad as a primal, huh,” R’nyath said, prodding him with a toe.
R’inwa grabbed his ankle and yanked. “No need to rub it in.”
Achiyo went to the Duma and looked at it suspiciously before picking it up. Would it attempt to show her things that were not real? But nothing happened as she touched it.
Ramza walked past them, giving her a nod of thanks, but his gaze was drawn from the Duma to something else that had fallen to the ground – a necklace. He reached out to pick it up – aether sparked like electricity – and he fell heavily to the ground, unconscious.
“What in the seven hells is up with Ramza?” Reid asked as a bunch of adventurers gathered on a Kugane dock, leaning on a railing to admire the Tyrant’s Bane, Alinore’s ship, as she lay at anchor. “Do you think he’s possessed?”
“What, by the necklace he touched?” Loup said. “Not that I could even begin to answer that either way.”
“Who would he even be possessed by?” Lina asked.
“The Ramza of eld, perhaps?” Crim suggested. “Who owned that necklace originally, does anyone remember?”
“His demeanour completely changed, true,” Alinore said, chin in hand. “He was unconscionably rude to his sister before the mission, and afterwards he was calling her ‘Sister dearest’ without a hint of irony. I’m still not sure how she took that.”
“I’m more worried by the fact he called me a lady!” Lina said. “I mean, he did go back to being a brat after that.”
“But even that didn’t seem to have the same harshness as before,” Achiyo said.
“You’re just always looking to see the best of people,” Aentfryn said. “He seemed sullen enough to me. How the hells do you have so much patience?”
Achiyo closed her eyes and imagined she had a cup of tea to sip serenely like in her youth at Doma Castle. “Practice.”
“And a good bout of heroism, obviously,” Alinore said. “A good role model for that scamp you’ve taken on.”
“More importantly, should we not tell Urianger what we have been learning?” Achiyo said. “This has uncovered so much about auracite that I never dreamed of.”
“Get Mikoto to do it,” Aentfryn said. “We’ll never understand it like she does, and I am not troubling myself to try. I suggest you do the same.”
“I suggest you sod off and don’t tell me what to do,” Reid retorted. Aentfryn rolled his eyes.
“I… I cannot believe my eyes,” Alphinaud said, using Chuchupa’s telescope to peer through the window of the building opposite.
“Then let me look,” Alisaie demanded, snatching the telescope from him.
Alphinaud frowned briefly at the loss. “Tell me what you see, that I may know I did not go mad!”
“There’s the merchant, and undoubtedly one of his cronies, with a geiko, and Nashu stuffing her face with sushi,” Alisaie said, trying to hide a grin. “And a flamboyant samurai in the corner. And Hildibrand in a kimono and theatre make-up, dancing. Is that what you meant?”
“I thought we only borrowed one kimono?” Alphinaud wailed in despair. “Where did he get the hair extensions? When did he do the make-up? Whyyy!?”
“See, it’s a good thing we didn’t call Achiyo to help out,” Chuchupa said. This was just like how Achiyo had reacted to Hildy in Coerthas, except Alphinaud was less guarded and subtle about his reactions. She was so pleased she’d roped the twins in. “Sure, she’s got kimonos, but Hildy would just stretch ’em out.”
“That’s your concern!?” Alphinaud said.
Vivienne grunted. She’d also, reluctantly, agreed to come along for the evening, though it might have been to spite Tam more than anything. “Not the first time he’s crossdressed. At least it’s not a kidnapping plot and he’s trying to pass himself off as the target this time.”
Chuchupa took the telescope and gave it a glance herself. “I dunno, with the way that bodyguard is eyein’ him up…”
A furry blur crossed her vision. “Oi! The wolf is on scene! Hey, Shigure, time to shine!”
“Right!” Shigure said on the street below, snapping out of mourning his recently shaved-off hair, and accosted the door guard. “The Wolf Burglar is within! We shall help you apprehend him!”
“Is that your game?” the door guard demanded, his hand going to his sword. “A weak excuse-!”
Vivienne dropped down heavily from the roof they had been borrowing and straightened up in front of the door guard, dusting off her hands. “The Wolf Burglar is in there. We can go with you, or over you. Your choice.”
“R-right. This way!”
“Very helpful to have a Dark Knight sometimes,” Alisaie commented as she also jumped down, followed by Chuchupa and, more slowly, her brother.
“What do you mean, sometimes?” Vivienne retorted, but there was almost a… a twinkle in her eye.
They followed the door guard up the stairs and flung open a sliding paper door. “There he is!” cried Shigure. “The Wolf Burglar!” Indeed, there he was, quietly lifting the rich merchant’s prized expensive katana from its display stand right behind the flamboyant bodyguard’s back.
Hildibrand ceased his undulatings and pointed dramatically at the Lupin with his fan. “At last, the villain reveals himself! We have you now, most wolfish of burglars!” Without a pause, he dashed behind the folding screen in the back, and they heard rustling fabric. Nashu jumped and giggled, and also rushed behind the screen. Everyone stared in befuddled silence.
The screens fell to reveal Hildibrand and Nashu, doing their signature poses in their signature outfits… Hildibrand had not had time to remove the make-up. “Yes! It was I all along! Hildibrand, master of disguise! Inspector of a thousand faces! Defender of justice!” He smiled his signature smile.
The rich merchant just blinked. “So… you’re not a taikomochi? Pity, that.”
“I feel so… so conflicted!” said the flamboyant bodyguard, whom Chuchupa now recognized as some guy that they’d beat up inside Kugane Castle a while back with Achiyo for… political reasons. Yojimbo, or something. Which Achiyo had said just meant ‘bodyguard’.
The Wolf Burglar, instead of taking every advantage of the distraction Hildibrand had handed him on a silver platter, was staring along with the rest of them. “Bugger me, if it isn’t the talking statue! Fancy meeting you here! Come to watch me steal the Soboro Sukehiro?” He jumped to the dinner table and whipped out a small bomb. “Well, you know how this goes!”
“Don’t let him get away!” Shigure cried, and pandemonium broke loose.
“Halt, fiend!” shouted Yojimbo.
It all seemed to happen in slow motion, Chuchupa reflected afterwards. The table careening into the air, the would-be captors diving at the wolf, sushi flying everywhere… Chuchupa herself had picked a route to attempt to intercept the Lupin at the window, and had flung herself into position with a little too much alacrity. The window ledge went sailing by… or rather, she went sailing by it. Wheeee! Ow.
“It was quite something,” Alphinaud said when they met up again later. “Every single person was knocked to the floor by the table except for Nashu, the doorward, Vivienne, and me. The geiko seemed all right, though.”
Alisaie crossed her arms and looked away, pouting. “I nearly had him.” There was a slight bruise on her brow; Alphinaud sent another healing spell at her and it faded again.
“I knew better than to jump into that,” Vivienne said. “Someone would get hurt on my armour.”
Chuchupa chuckled and popped a dirty sushi shrimp into her mouth, one that had come from the flying sushi upstairs. She spit out the sand that had stuck to it from the street, ignoring everyone’s revolted expressions. “Well, we may be back to square one, but I wouldn’t have it happen any differently.”
“I would,” grumbled Shigure, rubbing his bald head and glaring at the obliviously posing Hildibrand. “Let’s be off, I think I may know where the thief is headed.”
Whatever was wrong… or right… about Ramza, it seemed to have stuck – he was still calling Lina “Miss Mewrilah” more than two weeks later, and even seemed to be… dare Chuchupa say it… friendly with Montblanc and Hurdy.
More importantly, Alma was ill, and none of her family seemed to be worrying about it. In fact, Chuchupa thought the entire family was completely insane. Even for actors, who were always a little bit insane. But seriously, they were acting totally weird. Like, why was Jenomis so obsessed with clearing his ancestor’s name? His current name was famous, and it wasn’t like his ancestor’s disgrace was really known anymore except by history geeks or something. Oh, she’d forgotten – it was the auracite making him want it, or something. If she ever got possessed by a rock that made her wish things that in her right mind she wouldn’t care about, somebody had better thump her on the head. Suplex her like Hildy.
Maybe all the Lexentales were all possessed by auracite. How would she know? Mikoto seemed to have a plan, though.
Now she was parked on a crate squarely behind Fran the Viera, staring. Did Viera have naturally high-heeled feet, or had she decided that having perfectly perky buttocks at all times, exposed to the elements, were worth the pain of trying to run and fight in heels? She’d never met one before. The others were droning on and on about something or other… Wait, what was Alma doing out of bed?
“Listen to me, Brother,” Alma said, pale and clammy-looking. “The High Seraph beckons. She speaks to me through the Otius.”
“The what!?” exclaimed Ramza.
“There is no need to worry. Mikoto and I have already devised a plan. I can help clear our family name!”
Jenomis frowned. “The Sharlayan has no say in this. I am your father and I insist you remain here on the airship! What would your mother say if I allowed aught to befall you!?”
“Rude,” R’nyath muttered.
“Also, since when did Alma care about their family name so much?” Reid whispered.
“She cared, just not as recklessly as the others,” Alistair whispered back. “So this is still worrisome.”
Alma glared at her father. “Mother? That is what this is all about, isn’t it!? What it has always been about! You care not about Ivalice or the Orran name. No, you only seek to use the auracite to bring Mother back!”
A lot of people turned to look at Jenomis. Chuchupa did too, to see if he looked guilty or confused. This was the first she’d heard of any of this. That she remembered.
“But you haven’t been able to do that,” Alma said more softly. “You still do not understand how exactly it is that the shards translate one’s desires into reality. That is where I can help. I can ask the High Seraph. It is she who created the auracite. Ultima has bid me come to her place of imprisonment. If we free her, she will reveal unto us the secrets of her creations!”
“Do you hear what you are saying, Alma!” Ramza exclaimed. “Even if there was the slightest chance of bringing Mother back, we cannot risk your life in doing so!”
“Your brother is right!” Jenomis said after a slight pause. “We have sacrificed too much already! I cannot bear the thought of losing you! Either of you!”
“Don’t free sealed spirits, it never ends well,” Vivienne said.
Alma threw her head back with an unnatural glowing light in her eyes and a vindictive smile on her lips. “It is too late!” Her voice crackled and deformed as a glow surrounded from the Otius that Chuchupa suddenly saw floating behind her. Or was it the Duma? Alma had said the Otius. All those auracite bits looked the same to her. “I’m so lonely, Father. Why must you love Ramza more than you do me?”
“Do not be cozened by your daughter’s words, for they are not her own,” Mikoto cried, and flung out her arm with her little wand device. But instead of whatever she expected it to do, the auracite glowed brighter and a swirling black portal opened behind Alma. Like a puppet she was drawn in.
Chuchupa was ready to charge in, but she was startled by Alma’s lacy arm emerging back from the portal, with a faint, frightened murmur: “Help… me… Ramz-”
Ramza jumped for the arm, reaching out to grab her. “Alma!!!” But the arm was pulled back and the portal dissolved in light. Ramza fell to his hands and knees, hammering his fist on the floor in despair. “No! No!”
“Gods forfend…” whispered Fran.
So off they went to the jungle in the north of Rabanastre, the jungle supposedly fiercely guarded by Viera who killed everyone who tried to visit. Good idea!
They took the little ferry airship down to the surface. Fran led the way, taking a deep breath of the humid green-scented air. “Welcome to the land of my people. ‘Twould be a poor lie if I said I did not miss it some.”
Ramza was looking around in all directions, including behind them, and suddenly cried “Alma!”
For she was floating there, still covered in auracite light. But when she opened her eyes, they didn’t look possessed. “Ramza… Help… me…” Once more, a portal opened behind her and she began to fade into it.
“Alma!!!” screamed Ramza, and this time when he dove for her hand, he grabbed it. He strained with all his might, but he couldn’t get her completely out. Adventurers ran up to help, grabbing his waist and her arm. Surely between the lot of them they would be able to overcome one measily goddess!
“Ramza!” Achiyo cried. “Here!” She flung Mikoto’s anti-auracite wand at him.
Ramza seized it and channelled its light into the portal. “Begone!”
The pull of the portal gave way suddenly, and Ramza, Alma, and a dozen adventurers went flying about the clearing. The portal dissolved.
“Alma! Ramza!” Lina cried with relief.
Ramza sat up, rubbing his hand, then everyone’s eyes widened in alarm as a mysterious feminine voice echoed from the air about them. “Blood… of the invokers… Fulfill… the ancient covenant… and grant unto me… the vessel… promised.” A portal opened right behind Ramza and yoinked him through it, vanishing immediately.
“Shite!” Chuchupa cried, echoed by another half-dozen voices.
“What just-!?” Lina began.
Fran knelt beside Alma’s unconscious form. “Bwagi, to me! The girl is not well!”
“Let’s see,” Alphinaud said, hurrying up beside the big Bangaa.
Montblanc waved his axe in panic. “Uh, might I suggest we continue this back at the Prima Vista, kupo!?”
Kekeniro looked into the jungle. “That seems sensible. We can drop off Alma there with one of the healers and then come back to find Ramza.”
As they ran, Chuchupa sensed something behind them, and turned to see… it wasn’t Ramza. At least, not unless he’d had a quick costume change, or done some time travelling to get older, or something. A blue-tinged spirit stood on the path. “Have you the courage to face true evil?”
“Hey, Alphinaud, a ghost!” she said, and the Ramza-shaped spirit vanished.
“Don’t tease like that!” Alphinaud said. “There are more important things at hand, like Alma’s safety!”
Fran agreed to lead them through the monastery. Well, she was a native of the area and also some kind of general of Rabanastre’s resistance. There was no one better for the position. Though Chuchupa was again distracted by her running in front of them.
“What the hells is she doing in that outfit?” Vivienne muttered to Chuchupa. As defenders, they should have been in the forefront, right beside Fran. But things had gotten a little screwy with monsters in the jungle and now they were at the back, looking to make sure nothing jumped them from behind.
“I know right?” Chuchupa said. “I mean, if I had cheeks like that, I might put ’em on display too.”
“I don’t care what she’s showing as long as she doesn’t get stabbed in it,” Vivienne said. “What about the chafing?”
“Ye wear metal from head to foot,” Chuchupa told her. “Ye’re the most metal-clad of the lot of us.”
“I don’t have it up my crotch,” Vivienne said.
Fran’s bunny ears twitched from all the way in the front of the group. “This is traditional Viera clothing. It does not chafe.”
“Shite,” Vivienne muttered, and shut up. Chuchupa giggled unrepentantly.
The first chamber in the monastery was, of course, a temple. A wide, beautifully decorated hall, with a high domed ceiling, slightly fallen in, in the middle… and a man appeared to greet them. “My name is Mustadio Bunansa… and all paths lead through me.”
And then he turned into a giant robot. “Awesome!” R’nyath said. “You’re very stylish.”
“And very hard-hitting!” Vivienne growled back as the mustard banana robot-man pointed a gun at her and she blocked it with Cronus in the nick of time. “Sod off!”
And then when he got out the giant rifle, R’nyath wolf-whistled. “I want one! I need one. Can I have it?”
“Isn’t that your new hobby?” R’inwa said. “Build it yourself.”
“I gotta talk with Steve,” R’nyath said. “Oh, that’s a beauty- Wah!” A bullet came whizzing past his ear.
“Don’t get distracted, co-healer!” Naomi told him.
“Sorry! Sorry! Aspected Helios going out now!”
After beating the aether out of the robot-man, he bowed and… gave them his blessing? So he was a guardian, not an enemy. Well, there were roughly two dozen of them, more if you counted Fran, fewer if you counted Montblanc, if they couldn’t beat him with that many they’d be pretty pathetic. The adventurers descended into the lower levels of the monastery, where she caught glimpses of storerooms and prison cells and maybe a library. In a large chamber filled with waterfalls, they met a pretty blonde knight lady… and she also transformed herself into a giant robot person – with wings – to fight them.
“I am Agrias. The Beoulve youth guides your fate, but have you the faith to fulfill his legacy?”
“She reminds me of you, Achiyo,” Alphinaud commented, commanding his carbuncle.
“Only less cool, ‘cuz you can’t turn into a robot,” Chuchupa teased.
Achiyo chuckled. “Her demeanour is relatable. Let us show her how we may prevail, then!”
Swords and shields everywhere, and Chuchupa was not unbloodied by the time they finished that one. A rest and a teleporter later, and they were in some kind of ancient ruined city. The architecture looked like Lesalia, but stark white, and every plant to be seen was withered to a bone-dry husk.
“So there’s been an ancient evil here slumbering for centuries, millennia, even,” said Tam.
“Yes,” said Aentfryn.
“And it’s waking up, and will probably end the world as we know it when it does,” Tam continued.
“Yes…?” Achiyo said.
“Has anyone noticed that we happen to be in the nick of time to several, if not dozens, of potentially world-ending catastrophes?” he asked.
“Don’t think about it too hard,” Chuchupa said. It was liable to send you mad with fear, thinking about how fragile civilization and life itself, especially your own personal life, were. Personally, she was just going to chalk it up to fate saving all the good fights for her, even though she knew deep down that was just silly.
Khem stooped to look at a dead weed. “I thought you said that auracite doesn’t consume regular aether, only emotional aether. Then why is everything here lifeless?”
“I don’t think that’s the auracite, exactly,” Tharash said.
“Can you not feel it?” Fran asked them. “As your friend said: an evil lurks here… one far beyond our ken.”
In this dead city, another spirit awaited them. “Your coming was foretold, servant of Ivalice. Or perhaps you serve another.”
“Then don’t make assumptions!” Alisaie said.
“I am Count Cidolfus Orlandeau,” said the spirit, as if she hadn’t spoken. “Some call me the Thunder God. Your journey ends here.” A flickering light and he transformed into…
“What the hells is that?” Vivienne said.
Yllamse giggled. “I can’t make heads or tails of it.”
“Ah!” R’nyath offered her a high-five. Vivienne grumbled.
“Three swords, so Vivienne, Chuchupa, Loup, you each have to take one,” Kekeniro said. “Stay close in your groups! He has a lot of power!”
Ramuh he was not, but deadly he certainly was. Chuchupa got laid out flat by the colossal blade held in the… mouth… of the… tail… face. Okay, even if you could turn yourself into an eldritch abomination, how did you learn to control all of yourself well enough to fight two dozen adventurers!?
A lot of people got knocked down in that fight, and once more they needed a rest before continuing into the palace-castle that stood before them.
“They say there’s a Cid in every age,” Kekeniro said with a sigh as they sat on the white flagstones. “I’m glad we have ours.”
“Hey if we had that one, we’d kick the Empire and primals in the arses so hard no one would ever bother Eorzea again,” Chuchupa said.
“I’m sure Ramza was very happy to have all of these allies,” Li Mei put in.
“Is that who they are?” Chuchupa said.
“Yes, clearly they have been guarding Ultima this entire time,” Li Mei explained. “Only those they deem worthy, those who may fight her and have a hope of winning – since losing risks setting her loose, and risks good people dying pointlessly – will they allow to pass.”
“Gods, it’s like you haven’t even been paying attention,” Naomi ribbed her.
Chuchupa shrugged. “That one was fun! Ultima better live up to the hype or else!”
“If we may recover Ramza without yet another desperate battle, I shall be content,” Achiyo said. She glanced at Hiroari. Even his boundless enthusiasm seemed quelled at the struggles they had faced. Good! He was learning.
The corridor under the castle was pitch black, but a light shone at the end of it – a light revealing a giant woman with beautiful rainbow-coloured angel wings, imprisoned from the waist down in a wall of auracite. Small chunks of the stuff were scattered across the floor. They’d have to watch their step if it came to a fight. “Is it sanctum you seek, my wayward children? Or perhaps you are come in search of power. That which lies at your feet – that blessed bauble – can grant you both. You need but will it so. Now take up your salvation and begone. Mortal agency in matters divine shall not be suffered.”
“Give us back Ramza!” Vivienne said defiantly, pointing her sword at her. “And then you begone!”
“Ha!” Yllamse cried. “Divine agency in mortal matters shan’t be suffered either, so there!”
The goddess’s serene face drew into a frown. “You shall rue the day you raised your eyes to the heavens.”
“All right, let’s go,” Vivienne said. “I’ve heard enough.”
They fought her, and she summoned creatures from their last excursions to fight them back. Just when Chuchupa was thinking that things were actually starting to look grim, those three spirits from the monastery – Mustadio, Agrias, and Cid – appeared again and destroyed them with a touch. Chuchupa would have called that too easy, but Ultima began throwing a tantrum and only the shield hastily thrown up by the Zodiac Braves saved everyone. Chuchupa looked out in shock as the entire chamber outside the shield erupted in flames. Ultima, now free from the wall, dove at them.
Alphinaud yelped. “Her lower half – it’s a demon! No wonder the texts called her both angel and demon!”
“Yes, and it’s trying to break in!” Alisaie said. “Kill it!”
The snapping demon teeth burrowed their way through the shield. The adventurers started screaming with both terror and rage, and the monster took a barrage of spells, bullets, and swords to the face. The lower face. Chuchupa had to say to herself, while chopping at the fang nearest to her, that it all looked very… suggestive.
The teeth drew back, but the shield shattered and Agrias dropped to the ground next to her, very translucent, spent. “Such fury!”
Flames licked at them, and only the constant wash of healing spells and lesser magical shields was keeping them alive. And they couldn’t reach Ultima to hit her, not most of them. Crim and Alistair were about the only people who could, but they were distracted by all the apocalypse.
“Now is not the time to stay our blades!” came a new voice. “Children of Hydaelyn! Make it swift! You are Her only hope!”
A small figure who looked a lot like Ramza jumped in front of them, arms outstretched, and whatever spell Ultima had been cooking crashed against him. Then everything became white.
Chuchupa came to on a hard stone floor. Looking up, she saw a cloudy grey sky, and all about her ruins and rubble. There was the palace in the distance, so they were still in the ancient city, only it was completely trashed. She’d expect no less after a blast like that.
And Ultima was descending on them from above, angel and devil in one. “Few can claim to have endured the might of my will.”
“Look alive!” Chuchupa said. “Now we got her where we want her!”
“Once more,” Kekeniro said, and he sounded tired. “Come on, once more!”
Okay, it was a little scary having that huge monstrous form descend upon little ol’ her, even for her. But Ultima must have spent a lot of power in that one spell, right? Urianger and Moenbryda had said that auracite couldn’t just hold vast amounts of aether indefinitely, right? And nobody could recharge something that big that easily. Especially after being sealed away for centuries, out of practice.
Ultima was summoning little demonic cherubs that swooped down on the company, sowing chaos and blood, occasionally exploding in a burst of aether that splatted adventurers to the ground. Chuchupa could hear the healers complaining. Aetherial beams were blasting all over the place, and spells from all the spellcasters, and if she hadn’t been in front, she probably wouldn’t have been able to tell what was going on.
But, bit by bit, they were stronger. Ultima growled with many voices, light and feminine, and gravelly and masculine. “I see it now. In you… his blood, my vanquisher in times… long past. But not so soon… shall I accept defeat…”
“You won’t have a choice!” R’nyath cried. “In the millennia you’ve been trapped here by all these indomitable heroes… you’ve no idea what tricks we’ve now got up our sleeves!” He nodded to Crim.
Crim flung up his hand, and at first Chuchupa thought he was throwing up another turret. Then it unfolded – and unfolded again, and once more until it was as big as a Roegadyn-bred chocobo, sleek and metallic.
“What is tha-” Chuchupa began to ask, and cut off as the object pointed itself at Ultima and blasted her with a bright green high-powered laser. She reeled and screamed. Chuchupa’s face lit up. “Whoa! Do it again!”
“Unfortunately, it’s only got enough juice for one shot at a time,” Crim said, as it evaporated into aether.
“One shot is all we need,” Kekeniro said. “No fancy tactics! Just get her!”
They tore into Ultima, and though she thrashed around with her magic and her demon teeth, aether was pouring from her. She flailed and screamed. “I am your mother. I am your maker! I. Am Ivalice! Consign me unto darkness and your light will be forever lost!”
She exploded into brilliant light… and the clouds brightened. They did not lift, but instead of dark storm clouds, instead the sky became awash in hazy silver light.
“Look there!” Alisaie cried, and they ran to Ramza’s side where he lay unconscious in a pile of auracite. Before anyone healed him, he sat up, rubbing his head.
“He’s awake, kupo!” cried Montblanc. “…But is it truly him?”
Ramza looked up, let out a breath, smiled, and nodded at the moogle. Then looked around at the crowd of adventurers about him. “Thank you. Thank you all for coming to my aid.”
“Of course,” “Don’t mention it,” “Yeah you owe us one,” were various responses. Achiyo just smiled, because of course she did.
He stood, with a hand from Achiyo, looking at the sky like he’d never expected to see it again, then looked over and his jaw dropped. They followed his gaze to see the Ramza of the Zodiac Braves, the spirit, standing nearby, smiling at them.
“And you have my thanks, noble Warriors of Light. You have achieved what I could not.” He really did look the spitting image of Ramza Lexentale – with slightly different hair colour, and a couple more years’ maturity. “And you, bearer of my blood and the blood of House Durai. Thank you for seeing my final wish fulfilled.” One by one, the rest of the Zodiac Braves poofed into visibility around spirit Ramza. The three they had fought, and many, many more, including a big chocobo.
“Wow, he had quite the team,” Khem said.
“Ours is bigger,” Skaentu said.
Ramza glanced shyly at his companions. “My sacrifice has finally been given meaning… Now, my friends, let us retire to Mother Hydaelyn’s bosom, that we may finally rest.” One by one, all the Zodiac Braves turned to walk away, vanishing again into time, until only Ramza was left. “Farewell. You are the true heroes of this story.” He turned, missing Ramza Lexentale’s gesture to ask him to wait, but before he too could disappear, one more spirit appeared in front of him: Delita, the king he’d helped set upon the throne of Ivalice. “Delita. How I have missed you, old friend.” He didn’t even seem surprised.
The other guy seemed a lot more emotional about it. “Forgive me, Ramza! You deserved better than what history gave you. I… I could have done more… I am truly sorry…” Given the visions Chuchupa had seen, and how attached Delita seemed to be to Ramza in them, she’d well believe that the guy had been unable to rejoin the Lifestream without his buddy.
As Alma and Orran appeared out of the aether too, Delita continued. “These countless centuries did I long for the day that we might meet once again. And now, that time is finally come. Hydaelyn beckons us both.”
Ramza shook his hand, and then all four of them vanished at once.
Chuchupa glanced up at Ramza and saw him wipe the corner of his eye. Eh, it was probably dust from all the destruction.
As they waited for the little airship to come pick them up, Chuchupa, Vivienne, and Achiyo found themselves in a group looking at the distant palace. Its foundations had been shaken, and while it still stood, it was on a crazy angle now.
“Fighting for centuries with all their souls… and only their souls… They’ve got grit,” Vivienne said.
“It’s awe-inspiring.” Achiyo smiled at her. “If such a thing were somehow to be our fate someday…”
“I wouldn’t back down,” Vivienne said. “Though you’re talking to the wrong defender. Talk to the short one.”
Chuchupa cackled. “Aye, ye got me! But not everybody’s like me. It’s good we could let ’em get on with their afterlives. And now we can get on with our presentlives.”
Chapter 76: Greg