The Guado led them through the Cloister of Trials. Finally, they reached the antechamber in front of the Chamber of the Fayth.
"There, my lady, my lord... Maester Seymour is waiting for you in the chamber..."
Ranma grinned at him as they walked past him. "Thanks, pal!"
Pal? Another title he had to memorize.
They entered the chamber. Seymour was standing in front of the fayth's statue, his back turned towards them. "You're late, Lady Yuna." he said without turning around. "I expected your arrival much earlier."
"Because it's because certain maesters like to plot behind the backs of the summoners, eh Seymour?" Ranma said.
Seymour turned around. "What...? What are you doing here? I gave order that Lady Yuna should come alone."
"Well, too bad," Ranma replied. "I thought I should join your little date and be the odd one out."
"You have no right to be here. Leave us alone, now!"
Yuna stepped forward. "Maester Seymour, is it true that you... killed your father?"
Seymour closed his eyes for a second. "So, you know it. Well, what should I say? People die everywhere in Spira. It happens."
"You're a jerk, Seymour," Ranma snarled. "A coward. I don't really like how my father treated me when I was a kid, but I never, never thought about killing him. You're nothing but a bastard!"
Seymour didn't respond anymore. Instead, he stretched out his arms and fired an ice spell at Ranma.
"Carbuncle", Ranma quickly said. And Carbuncle appeared, faster than any Aeon had appeared before. He surrounded Ranma and Yuna with his Ruby Light, and the ice spell got reflected from the magic wall. Seymour shielded his face from the stinging cold and furrowed his brow. "I'll show you. I'll be the one that frees Spira with the power of death, and I will..."
He wasn't able to finish the sentence, as Ranma grabbed his arm violently and hurled him out of the room.
"Never saw a summoner that can fight back, huh Seymour?" He jumped after him.
Yuna wanted to follow him, but then the fayth appeared... the image of a beautiful woman, with skin as pale as snow. "Yuna, quick. Take this sapphire and give it to Ranma. It contains his new Aeon. And for you, I have the power to summon the icy guardian angel of this temple..."
She spread her arms, and Yuna could feel a cool breeze blowing over her skin. She felt a little exhausted, but not as much as before. She gave the fayth a final smile and hurried out of the door.
----
Seymour was leaning against the wall, breathing deeply. On the corner of his mouth, he bled slightly. Ranma was facing him, standing in his battle stance. Carbuncle floated next to him, in the same stance.
Seymour smirked when he saw Yuna. "Lady Yuna... if you knew these things... then why did you come here?"
She looked at him with determination. "I came here... to stop you."
He just snickered. "So, you came to punish me, then? What a pity..."
Suddenly, Ranma's and Yuna's guardians came running into the room.
"Seymour," Tidus yelled while grasping his sword.
"Ah, of course," Seymour smiled. "'Protect the summoner even at the cost of one's life'. The code of the guardian. How admirable."
"How... how can this be?" Wakka muttered. "We... opposing a maester... we'll get in major trouble..."
"Stop that whining," Nabiki snapped. "Everyone who kills his own father is a bastard in my eyes. Even if he's a maester. Even it he were to tell me I've won the lottery jackpot, regardless of that, I'd still stop him."
Yuna gave Ranma his gem. "Maester Seymour, we don't know your plans... but in his testament, your father warned us... You're going to betray us, and even Yevon. And that is something we cannot allow to happen."
Seymour faced them all without showing signs of fright. "Well, if you're offering your lives, I will have to take them."
He rose his arms. "Feel my pain. Come, Anima!"
A portal leading to a dark void appeared above his head. Out of it, a giant anchor came flying, attached to a heavy chain. It smashed into the floor before their feet and created another portal.
And slowly, it began pulling something from its depths... a hideous head... scarred flesh... vicious claws, bound by wrappings and chains... the Aeon of pain, Anima!
When the anchor finished pulling it out of the ground, the abonimable Aeon let out a sorrowful screech of pain and glared at it's opponents.
"Stand back," Ranma said to his friends. "This is our battle. If we're having problems, feel free to intervene."
He grasped the blue gleaming sapphire. He could feel it... he could feel the Esper resting in this gem...
"I summon the great serpent of the oceans, the wild vortex of the sea... appear before me, Leviathan!"
A gleaming disc of light appeared in the air. Out of it, like it was a hole, a snake-like body slithered onto the ground. It was a featureless body made completely out of water. But when the whole shape had appeared, it changed into its true appearance: A giant, blue and purple serpent with broad, spread fins and a dragon-like head.
The sea serpent, Leviathan, ruler of water, called out a challenging cry against Anima.
Yuna gently hold her rod and whispered: "I call for you, maiden of the everlasting ice, princess of the cold... help us in our fight! Appear, Shiva!"
I big chunk of ice appeared before them. Within the shimmering facets, millions of faces seemed to appear, looking like a beautiful woman with blue skin. Then, the ice shattered and Shiva, the ice maiden, broke free. With an elegant gesture, her long hair fell down her bare back.
The three Aeons looked at each other for a moment of determination, then the battle started.
Anima screeched with its horrible voice and fired its deadly beam from its visible eye, right towards Leviathan. The beam hit the hard scales of the serpent and he roared in pain, but afterwards, they got ready to counterattack.
Leviathan flew up in the air and spun his long body around Anima's, while creating a trail of water that begun forming a violent maelstrom around the hideous creature. And when he reached his peak, the whirlpool formed an entire pillar of water which spread towards the room's dome-shaped ceiling. But before the water could flow away, Shiva concentrated her powers and threw a freezing shard of ice at the vortex.
The frozen missile trailed a cloud of snowflakes behind, until it hit its target. Instantly, the entire water pillar seemed to explode with the force of Shiva's power and formed an enormous spire of ice.
Leviathan floated down on the ground, next to Shiva. Inside the ice, they could see the frozen grimace of Anima.
Shiva smiled and raised her hand. She snapped her fingers.
And Anima's icy prison shattered in a violent shower of deadly shards.
Anima trashed around in pain. This pain was even greater than the pain it was feeling on a daily basis. It shot around its deadly eye beams, so that Yuna, Ranma, their friends and even Seymour had to dive for cover.
Shiva and Leviathan managed to dodge most of the beams. Skillfully, Shiva jumped, skipped and twirled around the shots, until she was directly in front of Anima's face.
She made a fist and punched it in his eye. Ice spread from her hand and surrounded the whole head. The beams instantly got stopped.
Leaviathan got ready for a last attack. He let out a mighty roar and curled up his body.
Then he flew at high speed towards Anima. Shiva jumped away in the last second, and Leviathan's massive head rammed Anima's stomach.
The ice around its head broke apart, and Anima let out a final wail, which echoed painfully through the big hall.
Then it collapsed and vanished back into it's own dimension, defeated.
Ranma and Yuna breathed deeply. The hard battle of their Aeons strained themselves enormously. "We won..." Yuna murmured.
Ranma wiped his brow. "Yeah..."
Suddenly, Tidus yelled from behind them: "Look out!!"
Ranma spun around, just in time to see Seymour dashing at them, a knife in his hands that was aiming for his heart. It was too late. He was too exhausted and surprised by Seymour's attack, he couldn't dodge.
But then Seymour stopped as if he had run against a massive wall. Next to him, Akane stood with flexed legs, the claws on her glove straightly spread out.
And they had pierced Seymour's heart.
She pulled out her bloody glove, and Seymour stumbled back. He crashed against the wall and fell to the ground.
Yuna slowly walked over to him as his life force slowly left him.
He looked up at her sad face. "Yuna..." he whispered. "You... would pity me now?"
Then his eyes closed.
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Fri, 28 Jul 2006 22:15)
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