The creature's hide seemed impregnable as the party cut against it, and the only things that could remotely hurt it were holy and elemental spells, but due to its high resilience, the mages' energy was running dry.
"We've gotta beat this thing!" Ramza yelled taking a few mighty swings at the monster's hide.
"I'm doing all I can! But this thing is just spewing up poison at me!" Delita barked back..
"I think it's about time to summon you...," Seifer said in a collected voice, "Griever! Come forth!"
A massive vortex appeared in front of the creature, coalescing into a leonine head and body. With a deafening roar, Griever made it's presence known.. Diving down at the creature with slashes and cuts it softened the once indestructible hide of the monster. With a quick blast of wind that swept up and slammed the Zone Eater to the ground, Griever finally managed to gain some ground over the creature.
But the monster was capable of more than it appeared. Sitting on it's haunches like a massive cobra ready to strike. Then it inhaled.
Something that could only be described as an inverted tornado emanated from the beast creating an immense vacuum. The vacuum was so strong that it sucked away each individual party member until it swallowed everyone except Seifer and Griever.
"Rrrrrggghhh....," was all Seifer managed to say under the wind noise, struggling to gain footing.
Due to the fact that Griever was a flying creature, the vacuum was even stronger for it. The Guardian Force's wings battled against the fierce currents, but they couldn't hold out for long periods of time.
Suddenly Seifer got an image of a decimated Squall and Rinoa.
That's when he charged at the creature.
Using a massive barrage of slash attacks, he caused as much damage as he could in what little time he had left on the ground. But, he too, along with Griever, was sucked into the maelstrom.
It was dark, too dark.
And murky and wet.
Ramza couldn't see his hand in front of his face, but he knew by the stench of the place, this wasn't any place he'd ever been to before.
"Great, look at me, I'm Zone Eater food."
Grasping his Zodiac stone, he felt the warm glow emanating from it. It seemed to give off an intense energy, especially when one was exhausted. And he was. Very.
As he lifted it out of his pouch, it glowed brighter than usual. He then remembered that what he held was a Holy stone, these tend to grow brighter the closer they are to total darkness and evil.
"I guess this Zone Eater doesn't exactly eat normal food....well, time to give it a little indigestion."
Drawing his sword, Ramza thrust it into the ground with a wet thud.
Odd.
Normally a creature would react to the pain he'd just inflicted, not even so much as a yelp from the Zone Eater.
"Oh, yeah, it's undead."
Pulling up his sword out of the gross mess he began trekking across...whatever this place was.
Calling out to comrades, he'd noticed on the way, only seemed to draw attention to himself as swarms of weird creatures and monsters wanted to eat him. He dispatched each easily, but opted on simply looking for his allies instead of calling out to them.
"Are you brave, Ramza?"
He looked about in confusion, seeing nothing but wet and dark things around him.
"Who's there? Delita if that's you this isn't funny...."
"Your symbol, Leo, Courage, is that who you are?"
"Hey! Who wants to know! How do you know me!" He spun about, sword drawn, in confusion and....actually....fear.
He hadn't been scared since....that time, at least he'd thought he hadn't.
"You really don't sound brave, you know..."
"Wait! I know that....voice? Is that my...voice?"
"It doesn't really matter, but the fact you're scared does: in fact you've been scared for most of your life, you just never cared to admit it."
"That...that's not true! Shut up!" Ramza clutched his ears, as if blocking out some lie.
"What if your friends knew how much of a coward you were? Even when you came to this place...you were petrified! Ha! Ha!"
"Stop it! Shut up! Get out of my head!" Ramza screamed, sending a flock of bats flying out of the cavern area he was in.
