Final Fantasy XX - Page 22

**Avankiri** · 05-23-2008, 01:10 AM

Seifer smiled softly and began to walk through the halls of the strange entrance. He knelt by a doorway and looked in as a group of people began arguing with one another. Apparently, they were trying to split the loot from their raid evenly, but there wasn't enough to do that.

Seifer sighed and quietly drew his sword. "Bandits..." He turned his eyes as the bandits looked up and meeped. Leviathan's Tsunami loomed overhead. Luckily for the group, they were high enough. Unluckily for the bandits, Leviathan dove from his Tsunami and snatched them up in one scoop into his jaws, then the wave disappeared.

Seifer blinked and sheathed the sword, then looked down again. He was astonished yet again. Mountains of treasure chests and gold. He coughed a bit. "Sweet Holy Mother! Would you look at this!?" He climbed a pair of nearly broken stairs downward and walked amongst the treasure, then stopped. An altar stood quietly in the center. Placed in the altar was a sword glowing white on its blade. As if from the sword itself, an angelic voice spoke out to the group.

"My children, welcome to the Chamber of Collete...Fear me not, for I am she who has watched over you even in sleep...Come forward, young Paladin...Take this weapon. With it, your power will grow more than ever...As for you, my dear Summoner, I ask that you take this dagger. It is my gift to you, dear."

Seifer walked to the sword and placed a hand on it, then drew it with ease. The blade rang with clean elegance. He sheathed it, throwing his sword into the pile. The spirit-like voice spoke again. "Paladin...That sword is known in many legends...It is called Excalibur..."

**Day Late** · 05-23-2008, 05:31 AM

Makoto slowly enter the room, listening quietly to the voice that spoke to them. She dare not breath for fear of missing a word from the bodyless voice. Moveing slowly across the room, Makoto move toward her gift. The dagger. She lower her hands and took the blade gently within them, holding it up before her eyes.

**Avankiri** · 05-23-2008, 12:21 PM

The sheath slid off, revealing a blade that glowed a soft blue.

Seifer looked around, attempting to think. "Now what do we do...?"

**Day Late** · 05-23-2008, 04:36 PM

Makoto turn her eyes toward him, returning the blade to it's sheath. "I dunno." She said, adding a soft shrug of her shoulders. "It can't be this easy, there has to be something else here to challange or test us." She said as she tucked the dagger in her sash. "Or maybe there is more here to explore.." She rub the back of her neck, trying to think of all the possibilities... "... Maybe that IS it, and we just gotta' go to the next place."

**Avankiri** · 05-23-2008, 05:30 PM

Seifer bowed his head. "Lead on, my lady."

**Day Late** · 05-23-2008, 05:34 PM

"Hey!" She said, pointing a finger at him "You've got the map! And I dunno how to read those.." She glance around the room, trying to find a way out of leading them. She wasn't all too good at being the leader, perhaps it was some shread of shyness.. somewhere deep down in there... Who knew? Maybe it was the fear of messing up. Either way, she wanted to avoid leading.. or.. "hmm, Well, you pick our next destination. You've done so well thus far." She smiled.

**Avankiri** · 05-23-2008, 10:11 PM

Seifer looked a little oddly at her, then seemed to blush. He turned his face and nodded. "Alright, then." He lead the way, with Makoto as his torch, taking winding paths. Something wasn't right, though, as Makoto had said. Four simple bandits had taken all that gold? He stopped at a door and peered through the keyhole. His eyes widened. "So that's why..." He pushed the door open and covered his nose. The stench of dead monsters was overwhelming. Then, Seifer noticed the monsters themselves. They were terrifying creatures. Worst of all, these were really people, transformed by some strange magic to be fused with animals...Seifer coughed lightly and moved to a corner, bending down and puking. "What foul treachery is this?" He asked alloud, as if someone would know the answer.

A dark voice rasped out, "I can answer that." A figure loomed at them from the shadows. Candles lit along the walls, revealing a horrific sight.

The strange skeleton stood slowly from his throne and walked slowly over to them. "We were cursed beings...Now, I am the only one left...My mates were transformed by terrible magic into chimeras, and my flesh and muscle were stolen from me...Unfortunately, my curse did not end there. I can not ever leave this place, nor shall I ever die, lest I am killed by a holy warrior...Please, good sir, I beg of you...Kill me. Give my mates and I our much needed eternal sleep...They have deserved it much, even while they lay in eternal sleep already...Please, I beseech you, remove me from this mortal coil. I can no longer bear to see my mates like this."

Seifer looked to the man and slowly stood, nodding. "I shall do so...And in doing so, your soul shall be at peace. You and your shipmates will enter the heavenly halls of the twins...Go now, sleep forever." He drew Excalibur and moved it with almost god-like speed across the skeleton's chest, cutting him clean in half. The man smiled a bit. "Thank you, good sir...One last favor for me...Tell my wife, Haruhi of Silimar, what her hardworking husband had become...And tell her I still love her, even in death..."

Slowly, he disintegrated into a pile of dust. The chimeras in the room did the same. Then, it struck Seifer. "Hey, I just thought about something...Now that this place is unoccupied, perhaps we can set up camp here. Maybe even...Well, it's just a thought, but if we use the salvage equipment on Amari's ship...We can slowly begin to rebuild Asgard...." He turned his eyes to the group in thought.

**Day Late** · 05-23-2008, 10:22 PM

Makoto felt sorry for Haruhi, for even though she did not like the woman, it was sad to think she had been waiting for this man.. For how long? She shook her head, deciding she would let the others know that she wanted to tell Haruhi of this. Makoto walk slowly around the room, pondering Seifer's idea. "You know.." She said, stairing up at a wall. "I like that Idea.." She spun around "We can rebuild Asgard..." She held her hands behind her back as she nodded, liking this idea. "But first, we have to stop that creature that has been hunting us... Otherwise..." She let her arms fall to her side "It will only happen again.. And for everyone else out there, to protect them from fates similar to ours."

**Avankiri** · 05-23-2008, 10:33 PM

Seifer gravely nodded. "Yeah..." He turned and looked as the skull throne disappeared. The room seemed to glow a bit brighter with it gone. The stench also disappeared, and Seifer could breath again. He looked around and sighed. "First, we gotta plan our next move...Raine could be anywhere..."

**Day Late** · 05-25-2008, 12:46 AM

"Mmm." She nodded, resuming her walk around the cavern. "Yeah, but It seems that he's been rather quietly lately... I wonder why he hasn't chosen to surface for a while..." She spoke of things she had been recently thinking of, pausing as another thought crossed her mind. "And Alastor has some serious questions to answer.." She said, stopping in her tracks.

**Avankiri** · 05-25-2008, 12:49 AM

Seifer nodded in agreement. "Let's go ask him."

Alastor walked into the room. "Ask me what, exactly?" He tapped his feet patiently.

**Day Late** · 05-25-2008, 12:51 AM

She marched up to him, pressing a finger into his chest "You've got some explaining to do. This whole time, from the very beginning, you seem like you knew exactly what was gonna' happen! That big evil thing, us comming here! EVERYTHING!" She didn't care that her voice was getting louder with each word "And you got here before us! Why didn't you leave clues? Wait for us? Or is it that you just don't care and wanted us to fend on our own?"

**blizzarddog5** · 05-25-2008, 12:59 AM

"Hmm this so called trusted Alastor, could it be he was selling us out to raine the whole time just to keep his village safe?"

**Avankiri** · 05-25-2008, 01:00 AM

Alastor's eyes widened a touch. Then, gently, both he and Seifer wrapped their arms around Makoto. Alastor spoke softly as he looked down at his best friend's son and the Summoner. "Alright then...I'll explain everything. But one question at a time..." He lead the group back to the gold room, then through a secret passage covered by a tapestry to a kitchen/dining room. "Sit down, make yourselves comfortable. This is to be our temporary base until Raine's next attack." He walked to the stove and began to turn it and the oven on, then went to a storage room behind the kitchen.

Seifer scratched his chin. "So...What should we ask him?" He asked Makoto as he sat down on a soft pillow at the table.

**Day Late** · 05-25-2008, 01:15 AM

Makoto had calm down a notch, but she was still a bit on edge. Getting everything that was on her mind out had taken a lot out of her. She took a seat, calming her nerves as much as she could as she thought. "That day... When Raine first appeared... you spoke as if you knew that.. that this was going to happen.. Am I right to assume that? And if I am... how?"