"In order for you to get to Altima, you'll have to get past her fiends, once old warriors, now fully beings of evil, you've already survived one of her fiends from the past."
"Hmmmm.....Omega?"
"Yes. He was the water fiend, ergo that's why he was found in the deep sea research center."
"(psssst) how would he know that?" Zidane whispered in Garnet's ear.
"(psssst) he's a sage, I guess....." she answered.
"So where do we go to fight the rest?" Ramza asked.
"Each fiend guards the other gates of time, there are three gates, you've only gone through the first, Omega, but the other gates that you visited in the past are now guarded by her minions. She exists only in the oldest era of you." Bugenhagen answered.
"My time....." Delita said, ominously.
"But in order to get back to that era, you'll have to travel backwards through the gates and defeat the fiends that prevent you from using them. You'll have to defeat Chaos to get out of this era, then go to tears' point to face Ultimecia, then travel back to the Ancient Forest and defeat Jenova, and finally you'll have to get past Necron to leave Alexandria castle..."
"My castle! But how could Necron invade Alexandria, my greatest army of knights was protecting it!" Garnet jumped.
"Nobody knows Necron is there, he is sealed up in the time gate area, and only you and your allies can leave there. But you will have to defeat him to avoid unleashing him upon Alexandria.
"Zidane, we have to do something about this!" Garnet yelled.
"Sheesh, one fiend at a time! Please!" he remarked.
Bugenhagen overheard the comments, "That's exactly how you should do it! Take it slow, they're waiting for you to come to them, and don't let your emotions drive your attack, be deliberate, no matter what compels you to defeat Altima. Remember the next few eras will only be the way they are because Altima is altering time. Defeat her at the source, and time will change."
"Thank you, Bugenhagen, you have been invaluable to us."
The old sage looked at Delita, then at the blackened sky, "I once was one with the planet, I wish to be that way once again, not this unrest I'm experiencing, you are my only hope."
As the party walked along the dark dirt road back to the pillar from which they descended, up to face Chaos, their thoughts were changed to conversation.
"I know I should have said this earlier, Beowulf, but inside that Zone Eater, I found something for you." Zidane said handing him a really large broadsword.
"Hmm...you sneaky little thief!" Zidane grinned at this, Beowulf then began to examine the sword, "It seems to hold an engravement, it reads: 'THIS SWORD REPRESENTS THE LOVE BETWEEN SIR STEINER AND LADY BEATRIX IN TIME OF BATTLE, TWO GREAT SWORDS MADE THIS ONE: EXCALIBUR AND SAVE THE QUEEN.' Odd, but Agrias owns 'Save the Queen' how does this sword even exist."
Agrias overheard the conversation, "Save the Queen once belonged to Lady Beatrix, and its steel was the only match for Steiners' Excalibur, so they took shards of each to apparently forge this one..."
Zidane was curious, "Then why do you still have your sword?"
Agrias replied, "My sword was named after hers to commit it to our memory as friends."
"Oh....so this is both Excalibur and Save the Queen..."
"Much more than that....it is named Excalibur the 2nd, Excalibur II, and I do believe Beowulf is destined to bear that sword. It has a hunter's signet on the hilt..." Agrias speculation caused Zidane to ooh and ah on it, that is, until Beowulf drew his new sword back in the hilt.
"Be careful, Beowulf," Agrias warned, "That sword should stay in your family for generations to come, it is a legendary sword, more so than any before it, and the love bond put in its craftsmanship is unbreakable, understand?"
"Yes, m'lady..." Beowulf replied with a smile. He then thought on the implications of the love between he and Reis which were similar.
The group had a bit more difficulty climbing back up the pillar's spiral stairs. There were monsters there now and they cut through the usually strong defenses of Ramza and Delita. They were usually wolves and imps, but stronger than what the party was used to.
If anything got past the front lines of Ramza and Delita, it was usually dispatched by Reis or Beowulf, followed up by Agrias and Seifer, and backed up by Aeris, Garnet, Alma, and Teta Magically.
Back attacks were usually easy to deal with considering Cloud, Beowulf, and Sephiroth covered the rear. As for Zidane, he switched off through the formations, stealing, attacking, and protecting Garnet when necessary.
The higher they got up the pillar, the stronger the enemies were, Iron Giants, Behemoths, and Adamantoise filled the area. The Iron Giants were virtually indestructible to magic and attacks until Teta cast Demi on the it, crushing it's insides. The Behemoths were fast and strong, plus they cast a lethal Meteor spell on the party every time they were about to expire. This meant Alma and Reis were either busy casting Revive or using Lifega to prevent death on their allies.
But the most challenging monsters were the Adamantoise, they were slow, but they blocked the path until they were defeated. And due to the hard shell, the only way they could be seriously harmed was when Reis jumped and pierced their shells. It was even more difficult when the Adamantoise sprayed black dust in the air, blinding Reis, making her accuracy decrease significantly. It was only when Alma gave her some Eyedrops was she able to see again.
The fights were long and tedious, but the team pulled through and soon they were almost completely at the top when they heard.....laughing?
It was an inhuman laugh, almost demonic. The laugh had a tinge of hate for life, as well as a love for destruction in it.
Delita stopped the group and spoke, "You know what that is, that's Chaos beckoning us."
"Time to show the fiends what we're made of!" Zidane said.
"We face darkness and destroy it!" Agrias chimed in.
"Alright! Everyone ready? Charge!" Ramza yelled.
The party ran the remaining steps up the spiral toward Chaos. The creature was a dark knight clad in a dark horned helmet with red piercing eyes, and black armor with spikes every which way. He bore a massive sword upon his back, very similar to Cloud's in size if not even larger.
The knight drew his large blade and cleaved a massive gouge in the earth in front of him.
"Come and die, Braves, this battle will be the end of you!"
"We'll see who dies first, monster!" Delita's sword glinted with holy light as he spoke.
Charging forward, Delita swung into the black armor which bit deeply, but didn't seem to damage Chaos any. Grasping at the blade with one of his metal gauntlets, Chaos threw Delita and his sword aside like a rag doll. The force with which he threw Delita knocked the wind out of him.
This wasn't going to be easy.
Ramza and Beowulf took a different tactic and circled around Chaos so that he could focus on neither.
Chaos, grabbing his sword, plunged it deep into the ground, seemingly an unthinkable move, but what occurred next threw the two men off guard. A Quake spell had been summoned, and the force of the earth shaking in massive shockwaves disoriented the two knights.
Outside the shockwave circle, Agrias raised her sword into an arc and swung with all her energies into a Stasis Sword attack.
The attack struck home. Chaos was frozen.
But then the shell that was Chaos, shattered, he had broken out of the spell.
Disbelieving, yet still determined, Agrias chanted another sword strike, Holy Explosion.
The white shockwave that emitted from her sword bit deep into the ground after the knight.
Plucking the sword from the ground, Chaos lifted it in such a fashion as to parry a sword blow.
When Agrias's shockwave hit, it was suddenly deflected by the mysterious large sword.
"No! No one ever deflects that! It's impossible!" She screamed in dispair.
"Don't give up yet, he can't defend against all of us!" said a voice overhead, it had to be Reis.
Plunging her spear into what she thought was the Chaos Knight's spine. She held herself in place, pressing the wound in deep.
The knight screamed and began to reach behind his back, but she was out of reach.
"Come on! Attack while he's distracted!" Reis yelled.
Zidane ran up and plunged his dual blade Tower into the ground to boost his jump, then slashed deep into Chaos' open chest, the armor beginning to weaken.
"You think a simple flesh-wound like that will hurt me?" the evil being laughed, "I suppose that was your best attack?"
"Wrong!" Zidane said, "This is!" he charged right at the knight full-speed, then made a slight shift in movement, basically running past him, blade out.
The Tower caught Chaos square in the chest.
Though they couldn't see him through the helmet, they could tell he was in pain. The knight stooped for a few moments, then ripped the blade out of his chest with a disgusting tearing sound, black blood flushing from the wound. Then, with a guttural battle cry, Chaos furiously charged, slashing randomly with his huge blade.
