FicWad

"Three weeks." Cecil thought as he sat on his Chocobo overlooking the combined infantry of Baron, Fabul, and Eblan. Then one of the Cecil's mounted guards pointed and shouted, "Sir! There on the horizon!" There, the enormous portal touched the ground, and began expanding. Soon it was over a league wide.
"Here they come...." Cecil said. Then dark and deformed creatures began emerging from the blood red portal. The soldiers began fidgeting, and a scarce few even began to break their ranks and run. Cecil turned to his messenger and said, "Spread the word, I didn't want it to come to this...but every man who desserts is to be executed." The messenger turned to leave but Cecil caught his shoulder and added, "And get someone to get a quick count on that army!"
"Yes, sir!" the messenger said as he rode off towards the ranks of soldiers.
"A bold move Cecil....perhaps a little too bold." Yang said.
"Ahhh, deserters deserve it!" Edge exclaimed.
"Maybe, maybe not. But we need every man we can get. Even if it means scaring them into staying." Cecil replied. Still he looked forward, eyes steeled. Minutes later, a different messenger approached Cecil from the left.
"Sir, I have a rough count of enemy!"
"Well, let me have it!" Cecil barked.
"Well umm...sir...there's...there's thirteen legions! Ten infantry and three archers. "
"Thirteen legions!" Yang exclaimed.
"The red portal will come to the desert outside of Damcyan. The Dark Legion will emerge from it, and...I see.....thirteen...I don't know what it means but yes it's definitely thirteen." Kain had said in Cecil's chambers while they were discussing this battle.
"Well know we now know..." Cecil whispered.
"What Cecil?" asked.
"Nothing. Order the charge."
"Are you sure Cecil? Thirteen legions, that's almost double the amount of troops we have."
"Yes, I'm sure. What else can we do?" Yang turned to one of his monks and said,
"Order the charge."
"Yes sir." The monk said with a nod and then went to give the orders.
"May the gods watch over and protect us." Cecil whispered.

*

As the demon slowly came into what light there was provided by a few torches lit by Eziekial's magic and the dull light given off by the strands of time, the creature's appearance became increasingly frightening.
Its body was that of a giant eagle, with a huge set of wings and two massive arms armed with razor sharp claws the size of a large knife. The head of the animal was also that of a large bird, but only with blood-red eyes and the tongue and fangs of a serpent. The demon did not have legs; instead it had a large, coiled trunk, similar to one of a giant snake.
"I am thesss demonsss Dekhassssssss." The demon snarled. "And yousss willsss not passsssss without myssssss death."
"That can be arranged." Eziekial replied, adjusting the sleeves of his blue tunic. "What are you waiting for Kain?"
"Wh....oh forget it." The dragoon mumbled. Dropping his pack, Kain placed the blue helmet of the dragoon over his head and adjusted his lance. "We're getting through that door."
"Ssssssssso beeeeeesssss it." Directly after hissing out this final slur of words, the demon's mouth spread wide with a roar as it sent itself and its fangs directly at the group. Kain was quick to move, but Eziekial was quicker. So quick in fact that Kain's attention changed to his companion for an instant, which would have proved fatal except for the scream of Pearl that brought Kain's attention back to his attacker.
When he looked forward again, Kain saw that the huge fangs of the demon were directly in line with his body. Spinning as fast as he could to the left, he moved enough to dodge a direct hit from the fangs, but he was still hit by them, which created a jagged gouge in his right side.
Kain hit the ground hard, sending a spray of dust and debris everywhere. "Get up." Kain heard a stern voice from beside him say. A brilliant flash of light and a roar from the demon followed this as Kain painfully drug himself to his feet.
Feeling his side, Kain found that there was just a small cut in his side, but touching it at all was extremely painful. "Poison." He thought. Just then he heard another roar and a shout of warning from someone. A warning he did not need, however, as he knew exactly what was happening. Grabbing his lance, he launched himself backwards and while in midair flipped himself right over the attacking demon.
Seeing his opportunity, Kain struck quick and hard, rebounding himself off of the floor and right back into the air, this time at his opponents back. Blood sprayed as Kain's attack hit its mark, directly in the center of the demon's chest, but the small victory was short lived when the demon's wings batted Kain from his hold on the lance and its tail smashed him back across the room.
The air exploded from Kain's chest as he hit the wall, and his helmet went flying, leaving Kain huddled on the ground struggling for breath. "Are you alright?" Eziekial who was suddenly kneeling by the side of Kain asked.
Nodding, Kain gasped for air. "Can't....breath....." Eziekial nodded.
"Your eye's not looking so good either." The sorcerer remarked.
Kain hadn't noticed that his right eye was swollen shut and just above that same eye deeply cut. He did now though, and though the anguish of no breath was bad, this pain was excruciating. "I can't take away the pain." Eziekial said, placing his forefinger of the wound. "But I can at least close it so that it doesn't bleed any more. Cure!" The blue aura of curing magic surrounded Kain for a moment and healed all of his smaller cuts and bruises.
Eziekial then stood up. "There, you have about two minutes to catch your breath. Pearl and I can't kill this thing alone." Kain nodded dumbly in response, and then in a flash Eziekial was again gone. Pulling himself to his feet, Kain could see Pearl and Eziekial dodging around the demon's attacks, who was growing increasingly more savage by the second.
It was now using all that it had, fangs, talons, and even its tail to attack the smaller human mages, but they proved to be just slightly too fast for him. Finally Kain could breath again, and with his head clear he made a scan for his helmet. Just as he found it though, there was a scream, and when he looked over Kain saw that the demon had finally gotten one of the mages......Pearl.
Kain saw her small body go flying across the room, and the sight of the red-haired girl falling limp to the ground threw him into a blind rage. Charging the demon, Kain jumped right at the last second, evading the attack and landing on the end of the shaft of his lance which was still stuck in the back of the demon. This caused the lance's blade to cut more into the demon's hide, and that's when Kain noticed that he wasn't the only one in a rage over Pearl.
Looking to his left, Kain saw that Eziekial had finally unsheathed his scythe, and with his combination of speed and power, the mage was launching a full frontal assault on the demon. Pulling his lance free, Kain jumped over the demon yet again and looked at Eziekial. "Clip its wings, I'll go for the head."
Nodding, Eziekial jumped up and while in midair did a spin that allowed him to touch the ceiling of the room, which sat about thirty feet above the floor. He then launched himself at the demon, whose attention was now focused on him. Quickly, Eziekial chanted a spell and uttered the final cry of, "Illusion!" Within the blink of an eye, there was four Eziekials, and all were headed on a crash course for the demon.
Thoroughly confused, the demon didn't bother to even try to defend any of the attacks, and it was surprised when all four cut deep into its hide, one severing its left wing. Roaring in pain, the demon reared back, and that's where Kain saw his opportunity.
Running as fast as he could, Kain got directly underneath the demon and launched himself up. In a matter of seconds, the lance made contact and exploded through the bottom of the demon's head, slicing the front of it in two.

The demon crumpled to the floor and its head hit with a sickening thud, spraying blood and gore all around its dead body. Then there was a rumble about the room and it began to shake. "Oh no." Eziekial groaned.
Looking over to the demon Dekhas' dead body, Kain saw that an eerie red light had absorbed it. Spinning around, he prepared himself and his lance for another battle, but just as he did so the body of the dead demon's body disintegrated and the red light shot across the room behind Kain and Ezekial and impacted the door, causing the stone door to groan.
The room shook even more then, and as it did so the stone door slowly opened. Letting out a small sigh of relief. Kain walked over and picked up his helmet. Only after he did so did he remember Pearl. Running across the room next to where the door had been, Kain found Eziekial tending to a now sitting Pearl.
"Pearl are you all right?" Kain asked.
"I'm fine. A bit shaken up but I'll be alright." She replied.
"How about you, master Dragoon?" Eziekial snorted. "The challenge only becomes greater from here. Think you can survive?"
"I will, because I have to."
"Then so will we."

*

Cecil sat on his chocobo as the infantry of the world charged forward. Swords clashed against shields as the onslaught began. The Dark Legion's numbers didn't dawn on the infantry until the deformed creatures swarmed them.
"Send in the Mounted Dragoons." Cecil yelled over the noise of the battle. One of his guardsmen nodded and rode fifty yards to their right flank. Cecil looked and saw the man pass the message and then the leader of their calvary swing his arm forward, signaling charge.
The dragoons lowered their lances, and spurred their chocobos forward. Cecil watched as the units formed a solitary line, and they hit the right flank of the Dark Legion like a hammer.

Sweeping in, lances slammed into heads, bodies, and any enemy target they could. In the little time they had, the mounted dragoons annihilated the entire right flank of the Dark Legion. Reaching some of the larger monsters, the dragoons' weapons began to get stuck, and while they were struggling to re-acquire their weapons, the monsters lashed back.
The leading officers, however, began yelling to draw swords in the event that a lance got stuck, but because they were new to the sword and poorly trained, it didn't help much.
"Cecil! We're losing troops fast, we need to retreat." Yang yelled over the noise of the battle. Cecil thought for a moment and then nodded.
"Order the withdrawal." He replied reigning in his chocobo. Then he spurred the black chocobo he acquired, and it took to the air. This manner of travel it only took him a matter of seconds to get back inside the safety of the castle.
The infantry however, was a different matter. As soon as the retreat was ordered, there was a mad dash for the castle, and the Dark Legion's archers sent volley after volley of arrows at the retreating army, dropping hundreds of soldiers.

Soon all of the soldiers were in the castle, and the gates were closed. "Fortify the walls, and get the archers in position." Cecil ordered.
"Sir, I have a casualty report."
"Well?"
"Four thousand infantry deaths, five hundred wounded."
"How about our mounted dragoons?"
"Twenty dead, five unaccounted for."
"Dammit!" Cecil cursed. "Alright get Yang, Edge, Rosa, and Edward and bring them to my tent."
"Yes, sir!"

*

After about an hour of rest and curing Kain and the rest of the group picked up their belongings and headed for the large stone entryway that led down to the second floor of the tower. "Hmm, looks almost as cheerful as this dreadful place." Kain observed as he looked into the large flight of dust-covered stairs.
"The tower wasn't meant to be a place for happy-go-lucky travelers if you hadn't noticed." Eziekial shot back dryly. "Now let's get moving."
The trio stepped into the doorway, Kain in the lead with a torch and Eziekial taking the rear with another torch, and as soon as they did so the large stone door that had been open just a second earlier slammed shut.
"Well I guess we're going down." Eziekial remarked with a smirk.
"Good. The sooner we get out of here the better." Pearl said with a shiver.
"I agree." Kain said. "Now lets keep goin." The trio began their decent and found themselves walking the large, empty stone staircase for quite sometime. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, they reached another stone archway.
"How much you wanna bet it closes behind us?" Eziekial said as they neared the entry to the second floor.
"Do you always have to be so bright about things?" Pearl replied sarcastically.
"Someone has to. If I didn't I think the silence would kill me." Walking into the room, none of the three even had to turn around to see what the grinding noise was behind them. The door was sealing shut.
This floor seemed to be much bigger around than the last, and much taller too. Another difference between this floor and the last was the fact that about ninety percent of Time that was contained in this room was on the far-right side of the room built in the fashion of a nest.
"Well that's odd." Kain remarked of the nest as he reached the center of the floor.
"So are those." Pearl said pointing to the ground. "More symbols."
Heed he who has entered the second floor. Light the torches quickly, for Arkuras the Dark Phoenix has you in his sights. Eziekial read.
"Quick, light as many torches as you can see!" Pearl exclaimed. As quick as possible, she and Eziekial readied their magic and began attempting to light the torches. Just then there was a booming screech as what Kain presumed to be the phoenix, closed in on its prey.
"They aren't lighting." Eziekial said.
"Well we can't fight this thing if we can't see it." Kain yelled in reply as he waved his torch about in an attempt to fend off the surrounding darkness.
"Wait a second.....stop Eziekial, we're doing this all wrong." Pearl called across the room. "This thing is based upon darkness, so what's the opposite of dark?"
"Well light of course but....of course, don't use ordinary fire....Holy!" he exclaimed, directing his attack at as many of the hanging torches as he could. Suddenly the torches flared to life, their white light illuminating the room to the fullest extent.
Now Kain could see what he was fighting. Hovering in the center of the room was a huge phoenix, back as darkness and fiery as an ordinary phoenix. The only thing not completely pitch black was the dull ruby red eyes that flared to life when they saw the trio of companions.
With another roar it soared over to in front of the three and began to talk in a rough form of Elfish. "Humans, you have defiled this place with your presence. Dekhas may have been weak enough to let you pass, but I shall not. Prepare to feed the darkness!" It roared once more and the black fire the covered it flared up, scorching the hair the stuck out from underneath Kain's dragoon helmet.
"Let us pass and no harm will come to you Arkuras!" Kain quickly replied in the only dialect of Elfish he knew.
Suddenly Eziekial was standing next to him. "You do realize that in the form of Elfish he was speaking, you just said 'We are prepared to die beast?'"
Muttering a curse, Kain dropped the visor to his helmet. "You two cool that thing off...I'll take care of the rest." Nodding, the two mages separated, darting to opposite sides of the room and preparing their spells. In the meantime Kain was busy darting in, around, and over the phoenix's attacks unable to do anything in the form of a counterattack because of the extreme heat.
"They better hurry up." Kain thought, jumping over the assailing bird. "Otherwise I'm going to be jerky inside this suit of armor."
Right as Kain's feet hit the ground, he could feel the heat from the phoenix's body closing on him. Before he could jump to avoid the attack, he heard two shouts and watched as a stream of solid ice and a ray of white light whiz past him and impact the phoenix, throwing it out of the air and against the huge stone wall.
Seeing a chance, Kain rushed towards the downed monster. As he came to about ten feet away, he noticed that the heat from the bird was gone, if but temporarily, so he readied his lance and took to the air.
Shaking of the dust from its fall, the phoenix looked up just in time to see Kain's incoming attack but was unable to move from the full force of the blow. Kain's lance tore threw the phoenix's body, shredding the muscles and tendons in its back, leaving it flightless and utterly helpless.
Screaming in pain, the phoenix writhed in agony as blood spurted from its shredded backside. Kain shouldered his lance and turned from the helpless monster. "Take care of it would ya?" He said as he passed Eziekial. Shrugging, Eziekial prepared and fired one last Holy spell that shot through the phoenix's open back and destroying the heart, killing it instantly.
"Are you all right?" Pearl asked Kain as she caught up to him as he walked towards their belongings.
Pulling off his helmet, Kain replied "I'm fine. Way too hot in this armor, but fine." When he reached his pack, Kain dropped his helmet and as it clanged against the ground he began unbuckling his breastplate.
"What'ya think your doin?" Eziekial asked as he came over to where Pearl now sat and Kain stripped off his armor piece by piece.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Kain replied, tossing his right gauntlet at Eziekial who, when catching it, dropped it instantly.
"Yow that's hot!" he cried as he blew on his hands in an attempt to cool them off.
"I know." A now armorless Kain said. "But this floor is nice and cool." Lying down, the coolness of the stone soothed Kain as he quickly fell asleep from the exhaustion of the first two floors.
"You know, he doesn't look half as dangerous when he's asleep." Pearl commented.
"Neither does a dragon." Eziekial replied sarcastically as he examined the markings on the floor one more time and watched as the second stone door slowly began to open.