Final Fantasy Story Chapter 10
To Save The World
By Nathan Jones
Mortheius could see the look of fear in Relm’s eyes as he finished explaining to her what she had so desperately wanted to hear. The burden was a heavy one, and he told her before she left to consider it with the utmost caution before making her decision. Mortheius’s words raced through Relm’s mind as she took the long walk that would bring her to her next destination. Before sending her off, Mortheius had told the young girl of a temple far beyond the mountains to the east called The Temple of The Gods. This is where she would make her choice. And, in doing so, either save the world, or cause its destruction.
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Kefka surveyed the area around him completely before signaling the retreat. “All men fall back!” he shouted into the breeze.
His men obeyed the order with great speed, and in minutes they were already scrambling back to their ships over the next hill.
“Hahaha!” Edgar laughed, “Look at the bastards run!”
“Yes!” Cyan bellowed, “I do believe the Royal Army of Figaro hath made them think twice!”
The two were right. Kefka’s army WAS in full retreat, but to where, they had no idea, nor could such a thought even begin to cross their minds.
“Hahahaha.” Kefka laughed to himself, “I may be retreating from Nikeah, but I’m advancing on Figaro. Without you or the Royal Army of Figaro to protect the castle King Edgar, your people will fall like lambs before the slaughter. Sleep well on this victory dear king, for by this time tomorrow, it will spell your castle’s demise.”
“Emperor Kefka!” a soldier shouted, “The ships are ready for departure!”
“Very good soldier!” Kefka shouted back, “Tell the men to set sail for Figaro Desert! We attack at dawn!”
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“Hahaha!” cried Cyan, “Look at them flee! Like the dogs they are!”
The others too noticed Kefka’s army retreating and all gave shouts of joy. Edgar however was silent. It didn’t make sense to him that Kefka would mount such a vast army and then retreat when only he and the Chancellor’s small army showed up. Although he and his friends had emerged victorious this day, the thought as to why Kefka would flee so quickly troubled him.
“Nonsense.” He told himself, “I needn’t worry as long as everyone is safe.”
He looked up to see Terra slowly making her way down the hill. He knew how much pain she must have been feeling at that moment. Years ago, Terra had been the one that had united the people of Nikeah. Now…it was as if all that had been in vain. All had died today, and the cries and screams of all those innocent people still rang in everyone’s ears. Edgar followed the young girl down the hill and stopped just a little behind her.
“They are dead.” He said quietly, “As much as it hurts mi lady, there is nothing we can do here.”
“Yes there is.” Terra said as she quickly turned around to face the king, “We can bury them.”
Edgar nodded and signaled for the rest of the group to follow him and Terra. They quickly worked to bury whomever they could find. Men, women and even children all lay in graves neatly placed on the hillside overlooking Nikeah. When at last the final grave had been covered up with soil, the warriors all sat down by a fire. There they all looked on silently as Terra prayed to the gods for all the innocent people killed that day. And, soon after, they all fell asleep.
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Relm made her way through the forest silently. There was no way in hell she wanted to disturb any of the many creatures that inhabited the dark and gloomy shadows. Suddenly however, she stepped on a small twig and, in doing so, startled a tiny mammal that screeched loudly and scurried into the underbrush.
Relm laughed to herself. “What am I doing?’ she asked, “I have no reason to slink about like some coward.”
She laughed again and continued on through the forest. Now however, her steps were louder and before she realized it, she was running. Just why she was running didn’t bother her. All she wanted to do was get to the temple as quickly as possible. If Kefka really was on the move like she had heard from her friends back at the castle days before, then she would need to perform the ritual as soon as possible. Even if it did have repercussions that she couldn’t even possibly comprehend.
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The warriors slept peacefully that night for the first time in awhile. Suddenly however, Edgar was awoken by something tapping on his leg. He looked up to see the same phantom from before staring right at him!
“Ahh!” he accidentally blurted out, “What is it now demon?”
“Come…great king….” The ghost beckoned, “I have much…to show you…”
Edgar silently rose to his feet and obediently followed the phantom down the hill. There the ghost pointed a puddle of water and Edgar somehow knew what he was about to behold. Like before, the phantom swirled its finger in a smooth circular motion until the puddle itself looked like a miniature whirlpool.
“Look.” The ghost commanded.
Edgar watched and as he peered closer, he could make out the shape of a young girl trudging through a forest.
“It’s Relm!” he cried.
Edgar couldn’t believe it! He and the others had not seen Relm since their departure from Figaro castle and now here she was, barreling through a forest like a scared animal.
“Where is she?” he asked the ghost.
“She is far away.” The phantom replied, “And she has a heavy burden on her shoulders. If you want to save her, then you must find her quickly.”
Having said these words, the ghost began to slowly disappear. “Wait!” Edgar cried out as he tried in vain to grab the apparition, “What are you talking about? Why is she in danger?!”
The king got no reply. He stood there by the water and tried to think of how to find Relm. And, before he knew it, day had begun to break across the hills of Nikeah.
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Unnoticed by the others, Mog too had slipped away from the group, and now made his way to Figaro castle. He had a strange sense of dread and there was no way he didn’t want to take any chances. He arrived a little before dawn via a special warp spell, and was greeted by a large crowd of happy people.
“Where are the others?” a local woman asked with a smile.
“Oh they will be here shortly.” Replied Mog, “But first I need to speak with the chief Magistrate.”
You see, while Fazra and Edgar were away, the castle was run by the next in line. In this case, it was Jonathan McGregor. Mog was quickly shown to the magistrate’s quarters and he promptly sat down in front of the man. The official looked at the moogle for a moment as he sipped a cup of wine and as he wiped his mouth with a napkin, addressed the moogle.
“What seems to be the problem Mog?”
“Well you see sir, I have this feeling that something bad is about to happen.” Mog explained, “I mean I know we won the battle at Nikeah but-“
Mog was cut off before he could finish his sentence. “Yes I heard about that battle. Great victory wasn’t it?” the magistrate said proudly, “I especially liked the part where the fabulous army of Figaro laid waste to the solders of the empire and they fled like cowards. Very riveting if I do say so myself.”
“Yes sir.” Mog agreed, “But you see I don’t think we should celebrate so soon. In case you didn’t notice, there were no survivors in the massacre.”
“Yes it was a sad thing.” Jonathan said, this time bowing his head, “and it is a shame we were too late to prevent it.”
“I agree sir,” Mog went on, “but that’s not what really bothered me about the whole thing. Didn’t you take the time to actually think about the size of Kefka’s army? They were at least 5,000 strong. It doesn’t make sense for an army that large to flee at the sight of a weaker and vastly outnumbered army of warriors and castle guards.”
The chief magistrate thought this over for a moment. “You’re right.” He said with a sudden fear in his eyes. It doesn’t make much sense at all unless----“
His voice was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a huge explosion outside of the castle. As the official spun around towards the door in horror, a guard burst into the room tired and bleeding.
“The…. castle…sir.” he coughed, “We are under attack!”
He fell dead at the entrance to the room and Jonathan quickly drew his sword. “It was a rouse!” he cried, “Quickly find Relm and the others! I will take care of Kefka myself!”
Mog nodded and raced out the door. He had to warn the others about the attack. If he failed, all of Figaro was lost.
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Kefka looked upon as his catapults fired round after round of smoldering rock into the walls of the castle. Thanks to his brilliant strategist, the plan to draw the warriors out into Nikeah had worked. And, since Kefka had destroyed their ship on his way back to the castle, he had more than enough time to destroy the castle without interruption. He ordered the first wave of foot soldiers to move forward. They did so all in unison and as they walked towards the castle, lowered rows and rows of battle lances. They marched on towards the castle with absolutely no fear. Like a vicious phalanx they met the guards of Figaro at full force and each of the guards was impaled. Kefka then ordered his lancers to kneel and as they did so, thousands of arrows shot into the sky and fell on the helpless citizens of the castle. It was by this time that Jonathan had made his way into the main engine room of the castle and as he rounded the corner, he barely missed having his head taken from his body by one of the imperial solders who had snuck in. He fought the man for what seemed like an eternity before he emerged victorious. He kicked the body to make sure the solder was dead and when he was satisfied, focused all his attention on getting to the Burrowing Switch for the castle. For you see, Edgar had a great idea when he built the castle in the middle of the desert. When the threat of attack was imminent, the castle could actually burrow underground and move underneath the desert and surface at any location where another desert was present. This is what Jonathan had in his mind as he neared the switch room. When he arrived there however, he quickly noticed that most if not all of the engineers were dead or bleeding heavily from nasty wounds. He picked up the chief engineer in his arms and shook the man until the engineer opened his eyes slightly.
“Take this.” The man coughed, and he handed a large key to Jonathan.
Jonathan used the key to power up the engine of the castle and praised the gods when he heard the roar of the gears coming to life. There was a large megaphone on the wall and Jonathan screamed into the receiver for all surviving citizens to make their way into the castle as quickly as possible. With that he pulled down the burrowing lever with all his might and smiled with deep satisfaction as the castle began to lower itself into the ground.
Kefka however, was not smiling at all. “Dammit!” he shouted over the sounds of battle, “Why is the castle burrowing?! I thought I told those imbeciles to kill the power!”
With fueled anger in his eyes Kefka began to run as fast as he could towards the castle. He was not about to let the castle of Figaro escape again using this tactic. He reached the castle just as his remaining men were running out. However, when they saw the look in his eyes the immediately turned around and ran towards the castle again, this time with more confidence. They didn’t have time to make it the castle, and before long, a few of them cried out as the castle began to bury itself like before into the sand. Kefka was outraged.
“No way in hell!’ he yelled running towards the rapidly closing entrance to the fortress.
Although he put his heart into the stride, Kefka was not able to make it to the door on time.
“Damn!!” he screamed. “Not again!!!”
He stabbed his blade into the ground and motioned for the remaining troops to fall back.
“There’s no way of knowing where they are going.” He said, “For now we will make our way back to the Imperial city of Vector. I have plans for one of the warriors. She will lead her friends to us.”
Kefka took one last look at the hole in the ground that just a few minutes ago was the foundation for Figaro Castle. “Soon….” He told himself, “Soon…”
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Mog had arrived moments before Edgar and the others left their campsite to depart for the Dark Woods beyond Figaro castle. He used the same warp spell as before to meet up with them, but since he hadn’t previously visited the campsite along with the party, the warp spell only took him halfway. It had been a long trek up that hill, and the moogle was so exhausted he almost fell over when he finally caught up to his friends.
“Mog!’ Terra yelled as she ran towards him, “Where the hell have you been?”
Mog sat there for a few moments before inhaling deeply and struggling to get out two words. “Kefka……Figaro……”
Edgar’s eyes widened when he heard the words. “Wait Mog!” he cried, are you telling me that Kefka is at Figaro?!”
Mog nodded his head but grabbed Edgar when he tried to get up. “It’s…. alright.” he said, “Jonathon…burrowed to a safe…location.”
“Are you sure?” Edgar asked.
As he did, he looked Mog in the eyes with such concern it almost brought a tear to Mog’s eyes.
“Yes.” The moogle replied, “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”
By this time the moogle had begun to gain his breath back, and he proceeded to tell the group about Relm. Edgar butted in and relayed to Mog that he had been visited once again by the same ghost as before, and how the ghost had shown him Relm’s location at the present time.
“It is to be noted however,” Edgar put in, “that she is more than likely miles from that location as we speak. It is imperative that one of us goes in search of her, and brings her back to the castle as soon as possible. Therefore, I have elected myself to carry this task, and I wish for all of you to go back to the castle and regroup.” He turned to Mog and placed his hands on the moogle’s shoulders. “Mog, I need for you to go ahead of me. You know your way around the Dark Woods better than anyone, and I would appreciate if you would attempt to intercept Relm before she makes it out of that forest. I don’t know what lies on the other side, but I have a pretty good idea of whom I should ask that question.”
All agreed to Edgar’s proposition, and Mog quickly warped the rest of the party back to Figaro castle. Edgar was alone now, on that hillside overlooking Nikeah. He took one last look at the destruction and the graves he and his companions had dug, and began to make his way south. He had to get to Mortheius’s cabin as quickly as possible. For some reason, a strange feeling of dread had now fallen upon the king.