Chapter 35: Dark Angel
Nagy’s POV
“Reiganna, come on!” I yelled at the silver haired genome who was standing watching Kuja and Fury.
“Wait…something’s happening!” she replied.
Fury had stepped back from Kuja, in fact he was walking backwards, Kuja tried to follow but an invisible force kept him away. Fury smiled and spread his arms wide open to the air, shouting words that I couldn’t understand, a glow surrounded him, an aura of fiery red.
“What’s he doing?”
A pillar of light descended from the heavens and covered him, he rose up the light until he was nearly at the roof of the tall chamber, his arms still outstretched and his eyes closed, a look of peace on his face. Then he crouched into a ball, and a wind began to build up within the room.
“Ok…Rei, I’m officially spooked.” I said with a heavy tone of alarm in my voice.
“I’m not exactly rock-steady myself.” She admitted.
Fury uncurled himself quickly and a bright flash blinded me temporarily as there was a high pitched shriek and a gale force wind knocked me off my feet. When my sight returned I saw a sight which took my breath away.
For one thing his clothing had changed, whereas it had been totally black before there were now red marks around the edges of the sleeves and trousers, from his back had emerged a pair of pure black wings which beat slowly, also a red tail had appeared with matched his long red hair which fell over his right eye. The building around him had disintegrated, the masonry disappearing up in a whirlwind of fire and lightning which discharged itself onto Fury.
He looked down at us with pure red eyes, containing undisguised hatred.
“FOOLISH GENOME, YOU KNOW NOT THE POWER YOU HAVE AWAKENED!!” he intoned in a deep booming voice.
Kuja jumped backwards and hovered uncertainly in the air, his red feathered hair swirling around him. He curled his hands into fists and held them out in front of him, he cast a spell on Fury which sent trails of purple energy at him.
The energy was deflected shortly before it reached Fury, Zidane and I pulling Reiganna out of the way as one of the purple trails smashed into the floor nearby shaking it violently and creating a large crater.
“IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO? I EXPECTED MORE FROM YOU, FALLEN ANGEL.”
Fury retaliated, using the power of the crystal to draw some of the life force from Kuja, causing the genome to yell and slump forward, only regaining his composure milliseconds from hitting the floor.
“So…you wanna play nasty.” He muttered
Several pieces of masonry suddenly zoomed down onto Kuja, the genome destroyed four of them in flight with his purple energy but one of them managed to hit him in the back, knocking him forward onto the floor.
The pain I felt was excruciating but I had to keep on fighting, to avenge my twin sister’s death, to prove myself. At the worst possible time though I felt myself begin to have a flashback, another glimpse into my past.
I was floating before a crystal-like platform, I could
Zidane and his wife along with a Black Mage and someone who looked like Quina
from Alexandria standing on the platform in front of me.
“I can’t believe you beat Deathguise.” I said, an intense
feeling of surprise and hatred…and fear, overcoming me.
“Well…my time is almost up.” That feeling of terror, of
finality, I knew I was going to die and I didn’t want to. I had caused the
deaths of many but suddenly I was on the death list, and I didn’t want to go.
“Time to die, everyone!”
And the battle had commenced, I had thrown everything I had at those people, but against all the odds they had beaten me, so in a last ditch attempt I had cast Ultima and blown myself back into the Iifa tree.
My consciousness floated quickly back to the here and now, looking forward across the floor I saw a pair of leather boots land on it.
“GET UP GENOME.”
“Why? Why are you doing this?” I asked him.
Fury threw his head back and laughed with glee, the laugh echoed around what was left of the chamber causing Nagy to put his hands over his ears.
“BECAUSE I CAN…I WANT TO SEE YOU SUFFER GENOME, SEE YOUR BLOOD DRAIN AWAY, JUST LIKE YOUR SISTER’S.”
I got back to my feet and screaming at him, I cast Flare Star which instead of creating heavy damage like it normally does, only caused Fury slight pain.
The Red Rose had landed not far from Oeilvert, I could see the stone structure at the end of the valley ahead, but what had forced us to land were a group of three people on the plains running from the castle, one of them had a very torn hat and the other two wore tattered clothing with the word R written on the front, they both had a small creature with them.
“Who are you?” asked Beatrix.
“We’re Jesse and James and this is Ash.” Said James “We’re friends of Domino, we’ve just escaped from Fury.”
“Then get on board, do you know why Fury’s army is nowhere to be seen?” shouted Beatrix to them as they clambered up the ropes lowered to them.
They shook their heads.
“No idea! But something big is happening inside that castle, we’re heard explosions!”
As James finished speaking there was a heavy detonation and pieces of the main tower spiralled up into the air, something glowed within the whirlwind of fire and lightning that reached out of the castle and part-way to the sky.
“Oh my god, what is going on over there.”
Mikoto looked up from her place by Beatrixs side.
“Domino and Kuja are in trouble…I can’t hear Domino, she may be…”
“Dead.” Concluded Beatrix.
There was a momentary pause on the bridge as we contemplated this and then Beatrix broke it by stepping forward and giving orders.
“Ok, helm, get us as close to that place as you dare, lets get help to them.”
The Red Rose lifted off as the three ex-prisoners climbed onto the deck and we headed off towards the castle which seemed to be the site for an extraordinary battle.
We down the corridors towards the exit, our speed much hastened by the fact that we had heard and felt explosions elsewhere in the castle, but before we reached the castle we came across three figures taking some machinery from a room with a planetary chart in the middle, I recognised it as the observation room.
Suddenly I came face to face with my old boss.
“Lawrence Verdion, you rat bastard. What are you doing?”
Lawrence turned and smiled.
“I’m leaving Sam Kitson, goodbye.”
I drew my sword.
“Oh no you don’t!”
I swung it at him but the blade was shot in mid-air by a particle charge, I turned and followed the direction of the shot back to its firer. Rhiana the silver genome, her particle rifle now aimed at me.
“Don’t even think about it.” She said
I looked behind me at Kitiara and Xola, their hands were on their sword hilts and Garnet was crouched in a fighting stance but I shook my head. I didn’t want us to all get killed.
“You won’t get away with this Verdion.” I warned him.
Lawrence laughed.
“Oh my dear boy, I already have. By pitting Fury against everyone, their concentration is elsewhere, and while they’re fighting it out amongst themselves, I will seize the opportunity to strike.”
I blinked, an idea had come into my mind.
“It was you, wasn’t it? You reactivated the poison in Thunderchild…You created Fury!!” yelled Garnet.
Lawrence chuckled and smiled.
“Of course, who else could be blinkered so much by hate and passion than Mr Gojenta? Blinded by the power and greed so much that he completely fails to see what is happening before his very eyes. Sure, I tried to kill him before it got this far but failed, it is of little consequence. Let Fury play with his ideas of conquering Gaia, it will all be gone soon.”
“Gone?” The word stunned me.
“Of course, and in the perfect void, I shall create MY universe. In short, I will be a god.”
My mouth dropped open and stayed there, I was aware of similar reactions from Kitiara, Xola and Garnet.
Lawrence indicated the two genomes by his side.
“And in the new order, Rhiana and Ilvian here will be my Angels of Death. My influence will create the perfect universe.”
And then he was gone, vanishing in a flash of light and words which was so distinctive of the Terran teleporter. After he left there was a stunned silence, broken only by the occasional thump and ground shake from the battle elsewhere.
“Can he do that?” asked Kitiara “Can he become a god?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t know…”
“NO!!” I yelled as Kuja was smashed into the wall, his limp form dropping to the ground, red feathers scattering as he landed.
“PATHETIC…ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC. I HOPE THIS WORLD HAS MORE CHALLENGING COMBATANTS.” Said Fury.
An insane resolve gripped me, but I couldn’t deny it.
“If you want to pick on someone Fury…pick on me.” I growled, feeling myself slide into Trance. Nagy went to follow me over to Kujas side but I waved him away.
“No Nagy, get Reiganna and get out of here.”
Nagy looked disappointed but nodded and ran back to Reigannas side.
I walked over towards Kuja, stepping over the corpse of Domino as I did, pausing for a moment to reach down and stroke her face.
“I shall avenge you…we shall avenge you, our fallen angel.” I promised.
I stood beside Kuja as he got up and I saw someone else teleport in on the other side of him, a red glow around her. I turned and saw Mikoto standing resolutely.
“This isn’t just your battle, we are all Angels of Death…one of us has fallen, we must avenge her death with the death of her murderer.”
Both Kuja and I nodded and we put our hands on top of one another.
“Avenge her.” We vowed.
Fury looked at us and laughed.
“WELL, WELL, LOOK…MORE TARGETS!!” he taunted us.
“Prepare to die Fury!” warned Mikoto as we walked forward to fight him.
“Move in!!” yelled Beatrix as she opened the main double doors into Oeilvert, there was a deafening crash as they hit the walls on the other side. A small troup of soldiers, myself and Mizrah in their ranks and Beatrix in the lead ran into the entrance room and set up in a semicircle, our weapons at the ready.
“Room one clear!”
Beatrix pointed towards a door to our right.
“This way!”
We followed her through, not knowing what to expect, Mikoto had just teleported away suddenly, explaining that she had ‘family business’ to attend to.
In the room there was a large blue and green holographic planet hovering in the centre of a circlar depression in the floor. Not far away from the blue and green planet there floated a red one, but the main course of interest was in who we met in the room.
“Your majesty!” yelled Beatrix as she saw Garnet standing with Kitiara, Xola and Sam.
“Sam?” asked Mizrah “What are you doing here?”
Sam shook his head.
“It’s a long story, we must get out of here and fast!”
“Not so fast!” said Beatrix, her sword pointing at Kitiara “You are Kitiara, are you not?”
She sighed and nodded.
“I am.”
“You were an accomplice in the kidnapping of Queen Garnet, I am placing you under arrest.”
Kitiara coughed up some blood and gasped a little, she was clearly still unwell.
Garnet shook her head.
“No Beatrix, please…she’s helped us now…let’s just focus on getting out of here alive. What about Zidane?”
Beatrix shook her head.
“I don’t think he’ll be coming with us, Mikoto said something about ‘family business’ and that Kuja and Zidane were in trouble…I think they may be fighting Fury.”
“Then we must help them!” protested Garnet.
Kitiara weakly shook her head.
“No…there’s nothing we can do. We’re way in over our heads here…we’re dealing with powers we cannot possibly hope to understand. I know, I’ve seen the crystal, I’ve merged with it.”
“Then how can we trust you?” asked Beatrix, still suspicious of our Discworld colleague.
“Being with the crystal was paradise…but…I guess I’m not ready for paradise. Not like that…look, like Garnet said, you have to trust me, we have to get out of here!”
Beatrix reluctantly conceded and we began heading back towards the entrance.
“Hey! Mizrah, Snikity!!” yelled a voice behind us, we turned and saw Nagy running towards us with Reiganna close behind him.
“Nagy! My love!!” I yelled and ran into his arms.
Nagy laughed and swung me around.
“You’re safe, I’m so glad! But we must get out of here and quickly. The three remaining Angels of Death are fighting Fury and I don’t know how much longer he’ll refrain…”
“Refrain from what?” asked Garnet.
Reiganna carried on from Nagy.
“Refrain from using his most powerful attack and destroying everything within a mile of this place!”
We all looked at her horrified.
“He can do that?”
Reiganna nodded.
“He already has, when he was still Thunderchild, that’s how he got Jara out of my home, he levelled it and my home rebuilt itself. We must go…now!”
With an increased speed in our step, we ran back to the main doors and out towards the waiting Red Rose, heavy explosions began to rock the castle as we left, pieces of wood and rubble began to fall from breaking ceilings.
Oeilvert was beginning to fall apart.
Energy blasts zig-zagged between Fury and us, our power combined was enough to inflict damage on the winged monster and he had begun to show signs of that damage, his wings were slightly shredded and blood trickled down his chest which was now devoid of clothing, the rest of his clothes were badly torn, a little like my clothes at the moment.
One of his fire attacks got through to me and knocked me backwards, I felt light-headed and began to have another flashback.
“Burn! Mwahahahahaha!!” laughed Garland as a small town
below the Invincible turned into a firestorm as our powerful magic force
smashed into it.
“What did they do?” I asked
“Does it matter?” said Garland.
A strange dragon beast reared up in front of us and sent several large balls of energy at the Invincible which shuddered but sustained no significant damage, the same could not be said of the dragon which was blown apart by well placed particle cannon shot.
“What was that?”
“That was an eidolon.” Said a female voice behind me, I
turned and saw Domino walk onto the bridge.
“Good work Yugami.” Said another voice, I saw Lawrence
walking behind Domino.
“Was the job done?” asked Garland.
Lawrence nodded.
“The summoners will bother our plan no more.”
“Excellent.” Garland rubbed his hands.
Domino destroyed the summoners town? I wondered in
amazement, this was a part of her I had never known about, well, not until now.
Then my mind returned to the present as Mikoto sent another wave of powerful energy at Ultima Fury who was knocked backwards. He looked badly damaged but was still defiant, which a roar of anger he swept us off our feet with a wave of fire.
“Channel our power together!” yelled Zidane, I nodded and so did Mikoto, we focused our power into a spot just in front of Zidane in the centre and then sent that combined power at Fury who was smashed backwards into the remains of the wall on the other side of the room.
“NO…THIS CANNOT BE…I CANNOT BE DEFEATED. I AM INDESTRUCTABLE.”
“Face it Fury, you’re done for…and now, we’re going to finish the job.” Growled Mikoto as we advanced towards Fury, half way there a field of energy sprang up, preventing us from reaching him.
“I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN…IF I AM TO DIE, THEN SO ARE YOU!”
He floated up into the air and clenched his fists, pain and anger showed on his face as the glow around him intensified, the energy field disappeared and a whirlwind of dust and rubble surrounded him.
“I WILL SHOW YOU ETERNITY.” He promised as he unclenched his fists and stared at us.
Everything went quiet for just a second and then the world went white around me.
The Red Rose climbed ever so slowly away from Oeilvert which was now the source of many heavy explosions and erupting fireballs. Beatrix was yelled orders on the bridge and we were standing on the deck grimly watching the final battle of our friends.
“I still can’t believe that he actually killed Yugami.” Said Reiganna sadly.
“What about Jara? What’s she going to do?” asked Sam.
I sighed.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of unanswered questions at the end of this.”
Reiganna nodded
“But it’s over…when Fury detonates then Lawrence will die too. And this world, and this universe will be safe.”
The Red Rose was now about three quarters of a mile away from Oeilvert, I stood by the rail preventing me from plummeting to my death and tapped my fingers on it.
Suddenly the explosions and energy blasts from Oeilvert stopped.
“Oh no,” said Reiganna “Everyone hold on to something!!”
There was a very deep ‘THUMP’ and the whole sky went white with a roar of sound, a shockwave smashed the Red Rose to starboard, knocking me to the deck. Before I could slide off the other side and fall to my death I grabbed a hold of a wooden post and hung on. It took a couple of seconds for the airship to right itself and when I looked towards Oeilvert, the entire horizon was on fire, a massive ball of deep orange fire was rising into the sky, tethered to the ground by a long fountain of fire.
“Desolator.” I heard Reiganna mutter in awe.
The ground below us was heavily on fire and several parts of the ship had also caught light, sending crew members with buckets of sand and water scurrying to put them out. The sky glowed orange as the giant fireball rose slowly up into it.
“Whoa…it looks almost like a nuclear bomb.” Muttered Sam.
“Huh?” I turned, looking puzzled at him.
“An old Terran device, made a couple of decades before the second global conflict, it had the power to destroy cities and leave land heavily polluted for years. That was before neutronium bombs of course.” He added.
“Of course…” I chimed in, very confused.
“How do you know about Terran weapons?” asked Beatrix suddenly.
“Ah…err…” stammered Sam, a very embarrassed look on his face.
Beatrix folded her arms and stared at him.
“Well?”
Sam drew in his breath and prepared to speak but was interrupted by Mizrah.
“Look! What’s that!!? Over there!!”
We followed her outstretched arm to where she pointed.
“It can’t be!” yelled Beatrix in shock.
“It is.” Sam confirmed.