Fear sunk into all of them as they decided that they couldn't do this alone, they had to trust others and they had to ask for help. They made their way back to the Island of Mana, King Rom was the only person they felt they could trust, he had always been kind to them and had proven himself, if he was going to betray them he could have done so the night they stayed there. The travel was quiet silent, all of them feeling horrible that they had left Alexandra there, even if it was what she wanted, they all felt they should have stayed, that they should have not dragged Art away.
As they sailed along a large bird flew over head, something like a phoenix almost, the black sword that Alexandra had fell from its clutch and down to Art, it floated in the air, a hint of wind stopping it. He took it by the hilt and held it tight, his head fell to the flat of the blade as if saying a final farewell to her and when they looked up the giant bird was nowhere to be seen, as if it vanished, like magic the sword found its way to him and when he held it, a feeling rushed through him that this sword was always meant to be his. He quickly put it on, part of him feeling as though this would be the final sword he wielded, a gift from a master was his thought as he smiled, a bit of hope filled his heart in that moment as he sheathed it.
"No more fallen heroes, no more losing friends and no more Legion." His eyes welled up and his lip shook as he held back his tear. The rest of the group smiled and stood together, as if giving thanks to her for all she had done, for all the heroes had done for them and the rest of this world. Even if it was a story line, this had become all to real for them, making them truly care and feel for the people of this world.
They finally made it to Mana and headed straight to the castle, not letting anything distract the mission at hand, they needed help tracking down the Legion and they were all finding a new determination, one to fight Bahamut, rather than stop him from being resurrected. When they entered the castle King Rom was quick to rush over to them, his arms wrapped around them, he no longer saw them as adventurers, nor heroes, they were his friends.
"I heard what happened with the guild, I am so sorry, if I had known." His fist clenched and he turned away, feeling he failed them in so way.
"It isn't your fault Rom, but, how did you find out?" Razah's brow lifted as Rom stood to the side, showing that the young guild master stood behind him. All of them took a breath of relief, when they had seen the guild masters free they worried, not trusting what they said about him fleeing.
"I am sorry, I wasn't strong enough to hold back everyone and I ran away." He looked ashamed of himself but the group all pulled him in, hugging him as well.
"You did the right thing and saved yourself." Meekle told him.
"There is no shame in running and living." Art told him, even though it was a short time, being locked up with him had made them all grow close, not to mention their recent loses, they couldn't handle knowing they lost someone else. They asked for a meeting with the both of them, they needed to do this alone, they all gathered into the war room of the castle, an area filled with maps and many other things but most of all, it was sealed off and sound proof so that no one could hear them, King Rom, the young guild master Bennett and the group all gathered into this room around a table with a map of the world on it. They started to realize how much they still hadn't seen of the world looking at it, but now wasn't the time to think of those things, there would be plenty of time after.
They filled the two in on everything that happened sense they got away from the guild masters, telling them about Alexandra and the heroes, as well as about the true purpose for the dungeons. This was all shocking to listen to, they stared in disbelief at all they had found out and how horrible the experience must have been on them, but they shook their heads.
"No, there is no time to feel like that, we must fulfill the heroes last request, only we can and the Legion has all they need to summon forth Bahamut." Art had the most serious tone any of them had ever heard before.
"So then what do we do?" King Rom wanted to see what plan they had.
"First we need to find where the Legion is located, as long as we have been fighting against them we have never come across a true base of theirs. Even the small attack we went on was not a Legion base, the art work, not to mention many other things in that building did not fit it. They just used it." Fenix had a good point, there were tones of art of some family on the walls, at the time it hadn't crossed any of their minds.
"Right, no one knows where the Legion are, the palace that they once held had been lost but it was rumored to be in Crystalia." Rom had a bit of knowledge on this but most was lost to time so he gave them what he knew. They continued to discuss what they would need, supplies were important, they had to be ready for anything, the spells that Alexandra did on them were strong and much different, they had to be ready for thing like that. King Rom informed them that the curse spells that Meekle had were not all he could do, like the rare cards he got there were others, he could learn spells from books, but he would have to have them memorized and know exactly what their effect was to do them, unlike the cards he could use at any time as long as he had a target to put them on. He was led to a library and given stacks of books that he could look through, finding ones he would need.
Knowing that Alexandra and Bahamut were brother and sister would help in part to this they hoped, assuming that the spells she used had to be similar to the ones that Bahamut would use. The rest were taken to the armory and given access to any armor or weapons they would like to take, though none of the weapons matched up to those they had gotten, the armor was of great improvement.
"King Rom, I would also like to request that your army comes as well, we will need numbers to get through the Legion soldiers." Art was thinking steps ahead, thinking about what they would run into, the thing that the Legion always had over them were numbers.
"Of course, they have already started preparing. As have I and Bennett. We will be going to give support and backup. There is no more reason to hide on this island, right." Rom knew what he had to do, that he had to play his part and if the world fell because he stayed behind that he was going to be to blame, not the heroes for failing but for those who could have stood tall and decided not to.
The group was now in nice new armor, some of it green, a mythral armor that was harder than steal. It dawned them beautifully, but Art had something else, elite dragon armor, once said to be one of the heroes armor. It was old but it was still so tough and the scales that made the armor were almost unbreakable, he knew, he tested it, over and over. While Razah was now wearing goddess armor, robes that made her look as though she was a goddess, as well as a witch, it was an interesting and beautiful combo, her witches hat now a beautiful bright purple with orange stitching of the evil face that was always placed on the hat.
They tried to get rest but all of them were having trouble, they wanted to be as ready as possible or that's what they told themselves as they were filled with anxiety, there bodies shaking and their stomachs doing flips. All of them got a few hours but for the most part they all paced, prepped and hoped for the best, for in the morning they would set out with their own army to Cristalia and start hunting for the Legion. Before morning even came close the world started shaking, they all went outside or looked out their windows, people filled the street in fear at the shaking, even the high peak was shaking and bits of it started to crumble and fall into the sea.
In the distance a giant palace took over the large area of Crystalia, the land itself shook apart as towers rose from the ground, all of them connecting to make the largest building any of them had ever seen. It destroyed any small village and went from one forest to the other, on top of it was a giant flat platform. They no longer had to search for the Legion, it was clear to all in the world exactly where they were, they were going to start this where it all ended so long ago.
While the group looked on at this Meekle sat in his bed looking at his cards, his head shook a bit. "This probably wont work." He said about to toss it into the trash, but something stopped him, he sighed and looked over to Arts stuff, hiding it in a bit of his armor, he smiled and sat back on his bed and picked up a book and continued his studies. Soon they all returned inside, the site of it making them feel sick and they were over it, they had to come up with plans, some of those plans where things that none of them wanted to think about, things they avoided as much as they could sense coming to this world.
Soon the sun was rising, the same old chime played through the world and they all were laying there, looking blankly at the ceiling, all of them taking their time to mentally prep themselves. Art was the first to sit up, he grabbed his armor and started strapping it arm, the chest piece first and then onto the arm pieces. They all soon followed in his lead and started getting ready, though they weren't talking, they weren't joking as they usually would have been, they were just enjoying the time with one another, even in silence they were all family and would continue to be so.
The group and a full army headed to the port to take off, the wizards starting with the six, Rom and Bennett, so that they should create a shell on top of Vaikuntha. Several ships were boarded and filled, including Vincent McCloud and his ship of men, all were coming together to take on the Legion. As they sailed they were soon joined by the Hapries, who Rom had sent word to the night before, they landed on the ships, the familiar faces that the group remembered joined them on the Whale Dragon, they greeted each other and went over the plans, having let Trinity and Last Fantasy know all about this so that they didn't believe they were under attack when the ships showed up.
When they got to the port they were met with at least three more ships, full of guild members from Bennett's guild, all men who were loyal to him and did not join into the capturing of the heroes. Along with them was the elven blacksmith and many other faces that they remembered around town, the only ones they didn't see that they hoped to was Ana, the man who said he was King of Crystalis, as well as his knight and Grinble, these souls were nowhere to be seen. This made the group unsettled, wondering if it was true that they were actually joined with Legion and that all they had done was to push them into getting the relics for them. They wondered if they had never started the quests if the Legion would have ever been able to get a hold of the relic's on their own, though Dabria was able to take on Alexandra, so they most likely would have sooner or later, at least they hoped.
After going over the plans with the whole group they made their way to the palace of the King, that was just beyond the Slime Forest, there was no way to do a surprise attack with this size group. They just had to hope that the numbers would make a difference and help tip the scales in their favor but either way, they would not back down now. Once through the forest they all stood in front of the horrid, towering castle, large stairs leading up to a even larger door that they forced their way through, the battle started almost immediately as they broke through the doors. Legion knights flooded out and the heroes knights flooded in, no side was giving way to the other, the group made their way in as quickly as possible, leaving this battle to be fought by the rest.
Once they were inside they still had a few Legion knights to deal with but the main focus of them was on the large group, as if they couldn't tell what the threat to everything was, they were puppets, just like Alexandra said. The only others with the group was the two mages from the teleport, they had followed along to add numbers as well as being very strong mages that would help a lot.
The group smiled and all hugged for a moment before they split up, the palace was so big they knew they had to split, Vixen, Razah and Fenix going on way and Art, Meekle and Tophuu going the other.
"We'll see you guys soon." Razah waved as they walked away, the three walked backwards away from them, all of them feeling unsettled about it but this was the choice they had made together. One mage went with each group so that when they found where Bahamut would be summoned they could rejoin one another and fight him as a full party, but till then they moved forward.
Vixens group went to the left, finding their way down random halls, it was strange how very few traps they had run into, rather, they found themselves fighting soldiers that were deeper inside. It was so large they easily felt lost, there was no map, no right or wrong direction, it was all a guess and they had to just keep going, but they did know that the goal was to get to the top, that had to have been where they were going to summon him, at least that was their best guess, as old art of Bahamut actually painted him as a large dragon. That would be the best place to start.
Arts group wasn't having any trouble when it came to the Legion soldiers but they did find themselves lost, going down falls hallways and stairs that led them up but only led them back down again, it was odd, as if it was shifting and changing to keep them out. They became frustrated at this but the mage with them simply laughed as he started chanting in elvish and a bright light formed in his hands that trickled down to the floor and started showing them the path they should go, based on the time of the moving building. They started making headway but the farther they got the more soldiers they found, some of them larger, in dark black armor with gold flourish, they had large sword that took their whole body to swing, the hope that they would be slow was high but it seemed that it was not going to be that simple.
They fought battle after battle with these Berserk Legion Knights and they couldn't seem to get rid of them for long, as soon as they dropped one, two more came to take its place. Soon it started to feel as if they were fighting a hydra, but it made them confident that they were on the right path, though the path kept changing and the longer the battle took the more round about way they had to take to move forward.
Back at Vixens group they started running into monsters, it seemed odd but they started spilling in, as if someone opened up a portal and was letting them flood in from all over the world. They didn't give up though, blowing monster after monster away with all they had, Fenix taking on the role that Art usually had of attack and defense. He stayed in a non shifted form, trying to conserve as much power as he could.
As they went along they finally started moving up, finding a set of stairs that led them up hire and hire. It didn't seem right though, somehow it felt as though they were being led there, maybe towards their ends but still, there was no reason to turn back, this was the only proven path forward and they knew a fight was going to be a part of this.
Arts group continued on, but they were getting overwhelmed with all that was happening, it was as if they knew what they had planned and they weren't going to make it. They were finally captured and dragged farther into the palace, it was odd, they thought they would be taken to the dungeon but they were taken hire, till they came to a room that seemed to be just under the top, they could hear chanting coming from above and they were quickly dropped to their knees. Dabria laughed, sitting across from them, she crossed her legs and sat back.
"It would seem you learned nothing from the heroes." She snickered, "Splitting up got you caught and your other friends are walking right towards their doom. When something seems to good and to easy you should always turn away." Her laugh grew till she was bellowing, her laughter making their ears ring.
At that exact time Vixen and her team had found their way to the top of the area they were in, a long hall now led them to a door that wasn't locked, when they entered there a beastly looking man, standing at seven feet and his skin was bubbling and green, he let out a roar and swung a scythe at them. All of them took a minute, their breathing getting heavy, it reminded them of a mutated Zellis, but they were sure they finished him. There was no time, this horrid man was angry and was not going to give them a chance to think, the best they could do at the moment was react, dodging the attacks and protecting themselves. The move pattern was similar to Zellis but still different in its own way, as if he had been fueled with his anger, his strikes were intense and direct.
Fenix bolted in with a quickness that he hadn't had before, he unleashed a series of attacks, his stance that of a boxer, he bobbed and weaved away from the scythe and staying in close so it was harder to hit him, it was as if he got some fighting pointers from people before going on this mission. Vixen and Razah backed him up, using their attacks to chip away at Monster Zellis health points, each arrow was filled with magic, she switched element after element to find what his weakness was, no longer using the bow that would tell her. One of the light arrows landed solid and doubled the damage that she was putting out, that shifted Razah's attacks to doing holy spells as well, from Ra, to Atem, Bennu and so many more.
These attack started dragging the Monster Zellis health down when added to Fenix's attacks, he had shifted to his wolf form, it was getting more intense, as though the form itself had a level and it was upgrading. He was large and moved with a quickness, his fingers were long and sharp as he clawed at the man who stood in their way. They were doing better than expected, having little trouble with him, he wasn't that much stronger than Zellis was and they had been through quite a bit sense then. Though he was still taking time, it seemed like his defense was strong, his health fell slowly, even with the critical attacks they got for using his elemental weakness.
"Aken, I ask that you come and fiery this soul across to the other side. For payment I give my health for." The area changed, it was as if they were at the river sticks, finding the sky cracking over them as the boatman Aken took from Razah's health till she was left with twenty-five percent and he then took the Monster Zellis. It was an instant finishing attack, even though it was not her strongest attack it seemed to be super critical based on Monster Zellis's elements. He was gone and the world around them faded and they were back in the room.
Now that they looked around there was not much, just an alter with a large cauldron on it and when they looked inside they were in shock, it was not the site they expected to see.
"Are those, souls?" Razah asked as she looked down inside it, there were green soul like beings swirling around, some of them reaching up and looking somewhat like a skeleton but with no solid form as they turned to smoke and fell back into the cauldron. Vixen covered her mouth and looked away at the though of what was happening and Fenix got a snarl on his face as he quickly tipped over the cauldron and all the souls fell out, quickly they burst through the room, filling it up for a moment before they started to face, leaving through the walls until they were all gone.
At that moment Dabria was taunting Art and his group, Art glared at her and bared his teeth, like a wild animal that had been captured, he was struggling and trying to get free.
"Don't you see there is no way you can best my soldie--" In that moment they fell apart and black dust flew from between the armor, her eye started to twitch and she got up, rather than fighting she turned and went up a small set of stairs that hat a latch on the ceiling and disappeared into it. Art and his group got up, grabbing their weapons from the now empty sets of armor and healing up, if she was smart she would have tried to finish them while they were weak.
They busted through to the roof and looked around, it was huge, the size of the land itself, in the center was a large circle where a group of twenty mages all stood around it chanting, they were summoning him. They rushed forward but they were quickly stopped by Dabria, who raised a hand and grinned.
"I was saving you as a snack for my love, but you seem to just be getting in the way at this point, I will just have to deal with you myself. Thankfully you brought tones of tasty morsels for the King to snack on." A green smoke formed in her hand and shot out like a bullet, as it got close it looked like one of the heroes from the past as a ghost, it slashed its sword at Art and attacked at him but with one swing it was gone. It didn't seem they had any real health points but it hit hard. She continued, some looking like soldiers others looking like people, it was hard to get to her and Art had to summon more sword to help defend himself from all the spirits. Meekle and Tophuu where in the same boat, they were all trying to conserve their energy.
Tophuu summoned the Gorlion that helped protect him and Meekle's arms were covered in a black flame that formed into large demon claws that he used to slash them. Art continued pushing forward, taking hits if he had to so that he would get to her, he slashed at her with his knew sword, one of the letters lighting up as it slit her hand open and left a black mark that grew up threw her arm, she couldn't move it. This curse was called Nerve Breaker, losing use of the area that the slash was made in for a short time.
This gave them an opening, as she lifted her other arm Art tried to slash but a green flame burst forward and knocked him into the air, he was quickly caught by Gorlion. Tophuu's whip snapped against Dabria over and over in just a few seconds and as she caught herself from falling from the quick lashing, she found that Meekle had got behind her and his claw slammed into her, throwing her forward at Art and the Gorlion who let out a charge combo attack, both of them blowing past her with speed as three slash marks were left behind from each of them.
"You can't be this powerful, there are only three of you." Dabria looked wild, her hair was a mess, falling in front of her face and one of her eyes peering through it as she then heard the chanting of another, the mage that had joined them. Her wild eyes turned till they met the mage and a wicked grin came over her, as her fingers moved in the air, they bolted after Dabria but it was to late, she drew an ancient symbol in the air and red lightning surged over Astaria who was buffing the team's speed and attack with her chants. She fell over and stopped moving and the group froze in their tracks.
"Now, where were we." She turned back to them and dashed at them, her fingers grew long into monstrous claws that she slashed at them with, their speed now lowered as Art took the hit and she bounced between them, moving fast enough that she could attack them all over and over without letting them hit the floor. This drained their health quickly till Art found his sword met between her fingers, his curse having warn off she tried to jab her long knife like fingers into him but he was able to just barely summon another sword to block it.
Art kept her attention while the others healed and Meekle then threw a card at her, it stuck to her skin and she snarled at him before she lost all balance, she stumbled around. Art took the chance to heal and the other two attacked quickly, not sure how long this vertigo curse would last, they opened up with a combo of their own.
"Whip Lash." Meekle spun round, his claws hitting her over and over while Tophuu circled her and snapped his whip at her. Art slid in to add to the combo.
"Rock Rush." A burst of light came from him as he found himself now behind her and a single heavy slash was left knocking her back. Her health was low now, the boost they got in the beginning gave them such a high advantage but then the palace started shaking.
"Not again. Can't anything happen without the rumbling of everything." Meekle starting to become annoyed. They looked over and Dabria got to her feet and started laughing as she walked away from them and towards the relic that was all fit together now to form a large dragons head. It was floating in the sky as a purple light shot out and lit up the sky, clouds covered over and it started to rain as the relic cracked.
A burst came and a man in charcoal gray armor floated in the sky, his hair was white and his eyes lavender, just like Alexandra's. His had a long red cape and two large spiraling horns coming from the side of his head, he slowly started floating down till his feet hit the ground. He took a deep breath and the twenty mages that were working to release him fell to the ground, their spirits flowing out of them and over to Bahamut, who then grinned as he was met with Dabria who ran and wrapped her arms around him.
"You did well my love." He told her as he pet her head, his hand running down the side over her face and down under her chin where he tilted her head up to look at him. He smiled and his eyes got wide as her soul left her body and went into his mouth and he took a breath of relief. It was as if he was feeding on them to regain his strength, that was already high enough that Art and the others felt the pressure of him just being near.
"Why would you do that if she was your love." Art couldn't grasp what just happened, his heartlessness seemed endless. He looked to Art and then to the ground where the pixels now laid at his feet before smiling.
"She had served her purpose but she left me there for much to long. Now, you must be the heroes." He counted them with his finger, "Oh, but it would seem we are missing a few, that is fine. Now are you going to be as foolish as the past heroes and try and stand against me or, would you join me. Hmm, what about you, the one carrying my sisters sword." Art stepped back, his body naturally going into a fighting stance, Bahamut simply raised a brow that his lips followed up.
"Why would I ever join you." Art's voice got high and drenched in anger.
"Why not, what do you owe this world, they have done nothing but lie, blame and betray you. This is a world that needs to burn." In the blink of an eye he now stood face to face with Art, his feet slightly hovering off the floor.