Standing next to the massive complex structure made everyone crane their necks up. It seemed as though a massive fiery glow was emanating from the center.
"That must be where Ultimecia is; she never used to be a purely fire elemental, but I guess Altima changed all that, huh." Seifer drew his Griever's Heart and slung it over his shoulder, stalking at the front lines while the rest of the group remained behind him.
The complex was like a maze, each corridor a high structure of glass and metal, and every so often a set of odd statuettes placed in tandem with the buildings.
"I wonder who could've lived here?" Ramza wondered, drawing his sword for extra protection.
Even though there were no encounters throughout the odd structure, it gave the party a bit of nervousness, everyone was gripping a sword, or blade, or staff of some kind.
What was even odder was the fact that even when the sun went down a long time ago, the structure lit up, somewhat like the way Esthar City lit up at night. Still, there was no one or thing around, and it was way too quiet for them to truly relax.
The massive statue at the very center marked the spot where they had originally entered the time gate, but something was very strange. Ultimecia wasn't there waiting for them, the party just spun about looking to see where she could have gone. But nothing was there.
That is, until a black hole opened up from underneath them.
They ended up landing in front of what appeared to be a massive Victorian Castle.
"Looks like she wants to play with us." Seifer smirked.
"This place is probably a huge death trap." Ramza warned, "we need to find her and take her out, but in order for us to do that we're going to have to split up again."
As they creaked open the massive door, a still small voice echoed in their minds:
"You wish to find me, then find all the gate keys, there are fiends guarding each one."
Monstrous voices echoed throughout the main room.
"Krysta holds the key of light, while Catoblepas holds the key of darkest night, Tripoint holds the key of the mind, the key of the heart you must fight Trauma to find, the key of strength the mighty Goliath bears now, the swift Tiamat bears the soul key in tow, while the key of life is held by Sphinxaur, the powerful Gargantua bears death, the key to the door. Eight keys you'll find, if you’re lucky, eight fiends you'll fight, and that's many."
"Thirteen of us and only eight of them just doesn't seem fair…to them." Zidane smiled.
"A big place like this, means we have to split up. We should have three groups of three, and one group of four. We'll have to balance it out a bit, so none of our groups are weak. We know that most of the swordsmen: Me, Ramza, Cloud, Sephiroth, Beowulf, Seifer, Zidane, Reis, and Agrias can hold our own, but the mages: Alma, Aeris, Garnet, Teta, they need support. Since, I think Garnet not only knows white magic, but is good at summoning I think she doesn't really need a black mage to back her up. Am I right?"
Garnet nodded.
"Alright then Zidane, Garnet, you go with Seifer, make sure you flank him from behind, now for the next group, Cloud and Sephiroth are our best swordsmen, but I don't want them to be grouped together like last time, we need their blades as backup for the mages. Cloud, you, Aeris, and Agrias make up the next group. Alright now for the next group, Beowulf, you lead with Reis, Teta, and Sephiroth, take the middle route of the castle because you’re our main force. As for me, I'm going with Ramza and Alma, don't meet back here until you each defeat at least one fiend and get a key. I'm counting on all of you."
Seifer's group was the first to leave; they headed in the back corridor, while Cloud's group took the spiral staircase. Delita's group marched towards the main hall, while Beowulf and company decided to follow them.
The hall was dark and bleak with the exception of a few flashes of lightning, which didn't help Garnet at all. At every flash, she jumped and clung to Zidane, which of course he didn't mind. Seifer was off marching very quickly, scanning the walls for something.
"Ultimecia likes puzzles; I'm guessing she's hidden one somewhere around here." He began to feel the walls for a hidden switch of some kind.
"You really think so? I mean what's that chance that such a small hallway has a secret door somewhere. This is really boring, Seifer, I think we should move on." Zidane at first, was no help at all, that is until he leaned up against the wall, the wall spun around, taking him into a hidden room.
Realizing Zidane was gone, Garnet screamed scaring the crap out of Seifer. He quickly ran up to her and covered her mouth.
"Shhhhh....don't panic, he must've found a passageway around here."
Seifer began to call out through the walls at Zidane when he heard a loud yell.
"Hey guys! Check this out! Treasure!" said a voice in the wall.
"We don't know where you are, Zidane, open the door." Garnet said.
"Oh! Sorry!" The door/wall revolved around again, and Zidane appeared, "I found a bunch of chests in here, want to help me find out what's inside?"
Seifer shrugged and followed him in.
The room was filled with dust and cobwebs of all kinds, but all that was in the room were four treasure chests.
"Odd, it's not locked, there's no lock on it." Zidane lifted as well as he could, but the first chest wouldn't open."
Seifer managed to easily open the second to find…nothing?
"That's even odder…" Seifer thought. Then shut the chest, suddenly the remaining three chests that seemed to not open, opened by themselves. But there were no contents.
"Oh….I see, this is a puzzle. Open or shut the chests in the right order to get the treasure." Seifer grinned.
"Step aside! This looks like a job for a thinking woman!" Garnet pushed both men aside and took care of the dirty work. She opened and shut the chests like a master puzzler; by that time, she had managed to shut all but one chest.
"So, puzzle whiz, do we shut this last chest or what?" Zidane asked.
"No, shut that and the whole puzzle resets." She said knowingly, "Wait a minute, this isn't a normal puzzle, all the other chests are locked, and I can't shut this chest."
Stepping behind the open chest, she pulled the lid all the way back to hear a loud Click.
"Aha! I did it!"
All of a sudden all the chests opened simultaneously.
Seifer mocked applause, "Good job, but now that they're all open, what now?"
"NOW YOU DIE, PREPARE YOURSELVES, BRAVES, I AM CATOBLEPAS."
A blood red Behemoth with white hair and black fangs appeared behind them. The creature swiped a massive claw at Garnet, but luckily missed.
"Sorry, but you just picked the wrong party to mess with!" Seifer swung his gun blade in a snapping spiral, slicing and shooting away at the behemoth's hide. The beast roared in pain, and was about to counter, when a swift slice from Zidane's Tower weakened it.
"Siren, please, come to our aid!" Garnet had summoned a sylvan woman who was covered in massive angelic wings, she floated in the air for a moment, then let out a piercing scream. The scream was so loud that even Seifer and Zidane had to cover their ears.
"She coulda warned us!" Zidane said, half-deaf.
"What? I couldn't hear you! She didn't warn us about Siren!" Seifer called back.
"That should silence you!" Garnet said. "Finish him off!"
Both warriors charged forward and repeatedly slashed at the monster. It would have screamed in pain, except for the fact that it was silenced. It looked like just before it died that it mouthed the word Meteor, but nothing could be done to cast that spell.
"Well," Seifer said picking up the Dark Key, "That about wraps it up."
"Oh wow! A painting gallery, I love paintings!" Aeris yelped in glee.
"Don't let your guard down, Aeris, this area could be very dangerous." Cloud warned.
"Hmm, there's more to this gallery than meets the eye, Cloud, take a look." Agrias noted.
Cloud looked at the painting titles, all of them containing Latin titles and having Roman numerals on them. This wasn't so suspicious until he came across the largest painting in the gallery.
There was no title for this painting. And yet there seemed to be three spaces for a three word phrase.
"I don't get it, what does this mean?" he asked aloud.
"Cloud, up here, come take a look. This might be our clue!" Aeris yelled from the top of the balcony.
As he stood where Aeris was, he noticed a massive painting of a Grandfather Clock face on the floor of the Gallery, with the Minute hand, Hour hand, and Second hand all pointing to Roman Numerals on the clock.
"Hmm, that's I, V, and VI, I think I've got a hunch: Aeris, Agrias check the roman numbers and the three matching painting titles."
Agrias yelled in the back of the gallery, "This one's VIATOR,"
Aeris yelled up in the balcony, "This one says INTERVIGILIUM,"
Cloud looked at the one behind him, "VIVIDARIUM"
Cloud scratched his head, "But I don't know Latin…."
Agrias stepped forward, "You're staring at a Holy Knight of the church, and I know my Latin. Viator means Messenger, Intervigilium means to stand guard or keep watch, Vividarium means Garden, not so sure what that has to do with the other two."
"Well," Aeris said, "What does a Messenger have to do with a guardian or garden?"
"I think we have the words mixed up," Cloud speculated, "I think it says, and this is just a guess, 'In the Garden, Stands the Messenger.'"
"So let's go up to the painting and put in the title, I mean, that's what the painting looks like after all." Aeris said.
Cloud pronounced the three Latin words to the painting, "VIVIDARIUM, INTERVIGILIUM, VIATOR."
That's about when they heard a whir and a chinking sound of a large cannon aimed right at them.
A large mechanical creature stepped out of the shadows and holding a massive gun and two mini drones phalanxing its sides.
"I guess people just don't like art critics," Cloud said as he unsheathed his Ultima Sword, "Time to get serious!"
"Let's start by stopping the competition! Stasis Sword!" Agrias managed to freeze the drones, but the Trauma bot didn't seem to be affected, "Cloud, give me a hand!"
Cloud leapt forward, slicing down upon the large arm cannon, but when he connected it only hit with a loud chink bouncing him back.
"I didn't think anything was as hard as my Ultima!" Cloud said in shock.
"It has an incredible vitality to weapons, that's why it didn't work, Cloud, I'm going to cast Trine on it, stay back!" Aeris yelled.
As she clasped her hands together, a vortex triangle of lightning formed around the mechanical being, shocking its very core.
"It's weak against lightning, I think we can beat it!" Agrias said, "I'll cut it down! Thunder Strike!"
Multiple electrical sword thrusts erupted from the floor underneath the Trauma, shattering what was left of the frozen drones, and blasting the Trauma to pieces of metal. Inside the debris was the Heart Key.
"We sure made short work of that thing didn't we?" Cloud spoke confidently.
"All for the love of art!" Aeris cheered.
"Oh brother!" Agrias moaned.
"Right in front of us and we didn't even notice! The Sphinxaur was just sitting there like a statue waiting for us to notice it was blocking the door to the hall!" Ramza put his hand on his forehead as if to say he should have known.
"Well, that's one less fiend to find." Delita shrugged.
"Come on now! We don't have all day, we have a world to save!"
"Before you fight me, you must answer the riddle of the sphinx….what has--"
"Blah-blah-blah, I've heard this one before, the answer is man!" Delita was growing impatient.
"Very well, but I have another riddle for you, can you defeat me?"
After a few short thrusts, Delita retorted, "The answer is 'Yes, I can defeat you.'"
With the Life Key in hand, Delita and party marched up the steps to the main hall.
Only to run into Beowulf's group, who were about to cross on a strange balcony/chandelier.
"Well, Beowulf, how did you get past Sphinxaur?" Ramza smiled wryly.
"Hmm? I didn't see it, you guys?" The rest of his party shook their heads.
"Pfffft." Delita was exasperated, that they could simply walk past a fiend, it was crazy.
"Well….," Ramza shrugged, "You guys first, I guess."
As soon as all four member's of Beowulf's party stepped on the chandelier bridge, it dropped a good forty feet smashing into the ground.
"Whoa! Hey are you guys alright down there?" Delita yelled.
"We're fine! Just a little shaken. And I think we found a switch for this odd chandelier to be held in place."
As the large chandelier rose back up to the main hall, Beowulf flipped the switch, locking it in place.
"I guess we'll cross up here while you take a look around down there…" Delita yelled.
"It's okay, I think when we landed we unhinged something, Sephiroth's about to check it out." Beowulf replied.
As Ramza, Alma, and Delita crossed the strange chandelier bridge, they found a small stone balcony that overlooked a large clock tower. Looking up, Alma saw a feint glimmer of something in the moonlight.
"What's that?" she asked.
"It looks like a Crystal, just floating up there, that doesn't make sense."
The crystal seemed to be slowly floating towards them, and then with a bright flash, it seemed to open up into a fiendish creature.
"I am Krysta, guardian of the Light Key, those who challenge me, challenge Light itself."
"If you were really light," Delita answered, "You would be on the side of the righteous. Not serving the evil likes of Ultimecia."
At first the battle wasn't really much of a battle, until Ramza started to attack, every attack seemed to be met and countered, making everything they did seem futile, except for one thing: Alma just happened to know Holy.
Apparently crystals absorb light into their forms, but light that intense simply...well...fried Krysta.
Incidentally Krysta dropped the Light Key, making Delita breathe a lot easier.
After a few thrusts from his Masamune, Sephiroth managed to open the door in the floor, it turned out to be a spiraling staircase that lead to a large Wine Cellar. And floating among the barrels was none other than Tripoint.
"Let's make this quick;" Sephiroth stated, "I can tell by the way, fire, ice, and lightning coat this thing, that it changes elements. Let’s just cut it down with one slice."
"Well, Sephiroth, be my guest." Beowulf replied.
Just as he said, all it took was one quick chop to drop the floating Tripoint, making the thing drop its Mind Key.
