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Chapter 3
The Battle of Guardia
Marle got a worried face, a lot more worried than someone who hated that kingdom would have put. She took Crono by an arm and ran to the Epoch. Lucca rushed in before they left her.
1000 AD
"Ha, ha, ha! With my brand new power no one can defeat me!" Ozzie VIII laughed.
"Ozzie, please stop this. We had agreed peace with the humans." A blue imp pleaded. "I was elected leader of the mystics so you have to hear me!"
Ozzie just pointed his hand at the imp, who took a dark tone and fell to the ground, showing no signals of life. "You have made me tired of you. The one with most power rules, and that's final! Ha! I have even more power Magus had 400 years ago, I'm the god of the mystics!" He conjured a gigantic bolt that made the blocks on the castle's walls fall apart like they were running away. "Attack, my troops, attack, that the mystics may finally get to rule."
Then, Ozzie saw the Epoch nearing the castle. "There it is that ship of doom I was warned of. Just try to land, my darlings!"
Lucca saw the situation was no good at all. Ozzie's troops had completely surrounded the castle. Now the southern outer wall was crumbled, and the soldiers were doing battle in the courtyards of the castle. The mystics were clearly winning.
"We have to help them! Let's attack by the rear." Marle maneuvered to land before the forest, but as she was stunned as a big burst of fire scourged the Epoch.
"What was that?" Crono looked down through the glass dome, to see Ozzie VIII shooting dozens of fire balls at them. "Whoa! Let's get outta here!"
Marle moved up, but the Epoch was hit a couple of times more. "We can't land!"
"We may have to get off while in flight. Marle, get over the castle and the closest you can get to the ground." Lucca pointed out.
"Yes." Marle did as said, so they were left only 6 meters (about 20 feet) from the castle's highest floor. Lucca opened the dome and threw a safely tied rope to the ground. "Wait, if we leave the Epoch here they may blast it."
"I'll take care of that. You start getting down." Lucca stared conscientiously at a big button, with a red half and a blue half and looked down at the rope where Crono and Marle were already halfway to the roof.
Lucca was impatiently waiting for them to get to the ground, when two large fireballs soared dangerously close to Epoch. Next round would not miss. She noticed in distraught that her companions were still more than 5 feet from the ground, but then a red sparkle far noticed her of the incoming attack. She pushed the button with a quick arm movement and jumped over the gunwale.
"MOVE IT!!!!!" Crono heard before seeing Lucca jump into the air, the Epoch -Epoch which had tied the rope he was on- put on the dome and fly out of sight just as two fireballs crossed the place where it had been. As soon he touched the ground, he jumped up again and caught Lucca, then turned around to see if Marle had landed well.
"I'm okay, I'm okay. Let's go in." Marle brushed off the dust from her vest and rushed in followed by Crono and Lucca.
The battle was on. Three Diablos had broken into the castle and faced two soldiers while the other two kept the door shut. The monsters moved with surprising agility, one of them jumped to attack one of the soldiers who was busy with the door.
But a blade that traveled on the air cut the creature and sent it to the ground. It was Crono's Slash. He, Marle and Lucca had just crossed the corner on the corridor and ran to the battle place.
The Diablo, surprisingly to Crono, got up. Crono stared at his sword, but then looked at the monster and narrowed his eyes. He made sure to difference the three attackers from the soldiers and unleashed a Luminaire who engulfed them perfectly.
Visibly damaged, but still alive, the monsters kept on attacking, even though they weren't supposed to have withstood the Luminaire. Either Crono was fighting very poorly or... Marle decided it was more important to finished them anyway and buried the Diablos under a couple of Ice 2 boulders.
Then, the door broke open, throwing the couple of soldiers who held it closed against the opposite wall. Monsters started flooding in, but Lucca quickly threw a Napalm bomb that made the stone crumble over many of them and seal the door.
"That'll keep them at bay for a while." Lucca said, but was stopped by the lightning bolts that shot out from an Imp, followed by an escort of four Henchs. "What the hell is going on? Imps aren't able to cast Lightning 2!!!"
"Surprised, human?" the creature asked in a tone of superiority. "As you would guess if you had a decent brain, we're not regular Medina Village mystics. Feel the power of a TeoImp!" He cried when he executed Lightning 2 again.
"TeoImp?" Crono jumped over a Hench and slashed him continuously, as known in his Confuse attack, which seemed to work with the monster.
Lucca threw a Mega Bomb in the middle of the enemies, but one of the Henchs tackled her against the wall. Marle quickly gave her some energy back with her completely mastered Aura and proceed to Haste Crono.
One of the Hench managed to punch Crono's face, but the next was stopped cold by Crono's Luminaire once again, that seemed to finish off a couple. But Crono was worried on his decreasing magic levels. If this was just the first wave, what would be left for the rest?
The imp struck a lightning bolt right on Marle, but she retaliated with another rain of ice boulders, backed up by Lucca's Fire 2 that finished the job.
Crono and Marle brought the group back to perfect health with an Aura Whirl, but their magic was not very high and they hadn't brought enough supplies. "I'll go check the knight's quarters." Lucca turned around and darted in that direction.
"Crono, we must go and find dad!" Marle told him. Crono nodded, went with her over the stairs and tried to open the door. It was stuck. Crono was ready to blast it open when a noise made him turn back.
The stones on the entrance were being moved apart by an hideous figure. It looked like an Omnicrone, but was bigger and his armor was dead black. His mace shined strangely. Marle was sure they would call him "Teo-Omnicrone". He was followed by a couple of Diablos and more Henchs.
"Finish with them, TeoOmnicrown, and I'll bac... Creep! I'm needed on the rear. I leave this on your rather big hands." Ozzie VIII's voice was heard outside the door. TeoOmnicrown answered with a grumble that convinced Crono and Marle of the brutality of their foe.
The monsters attacked in formation. The Diablos kicked Crono and Marle on the chest, almost taking the air out of them, and the Henchs drowned the pair in a water bubble each.
Crono jumped on the hair and did a clean Spincut on a Diablo's head. He jumped back, more for the filth of the Diablo's brain than for anything else, but his disgust saved him from a big fireball shot from the TeoOmnicrown's mace.
The big monster emitted a dry laugh and motioned for two smaller Diablos to come in. They flied over the combatants and tried to get into the throne room. "Oh, you won't!" Marle created a thick cover of ice over the door. The creatures started spitting fire to melt it.
A Diablo dove straight on Crono, but he managed to slice him in two after receiving the hit. Marle was pummeled twice by the Henchs, but one of them was frozen in ice. TeoOmnicrown casted his second fireball and readied to fire it "Flare!!!" The attack was swept away with the life of the another Hench.
Crono and Marle smiled at the sight of Lucca returning, and concentrated it the 3 Henchs whom joined the battle. "I think it's a good moment to try the improvement." Lucca said to her companions, who nodded.
The group surrounded the enemy from different directions, and concentrated their magical energy in the field created in the middle of them, a triangle now. Lightning, Fire and Ice in their second versions were casted, but then the energy was drawn in a triangular prism over the monsters. "Delta Triangle 2!!!!" A whirl of lightning bolts, a wave of fire blasts and a rain of ice boulders attacked them at the same time. The new triple spell exterminated the Henchs and a couple of other monsters that tried to get in. TeoOmnicrown was visibly damaged too.
But the cards were not played yet. The leader monster pointed with his hand and several Diablos entered in a file and headed to the right wing of the castle. Marle's face lost color. If the monsters could spread themselves all over the castle, they were doomed!
"Ice Line!"
A thin wall of ice started lifting on the ground, meeting all the Diablos in the middle and cutting them in halves. The pieces froze even before they fell to the ground, when they did, broke into dust. The wall reached TeoOmnicrown and sent him flying through the wall out of the castle.
Where the line had begun, a knight stood. None of the fighters had seen him before. It was a tall, but also thick figure. He wore a dark blue armor, that shined with all the colors in some points. Marle was sure she knew that voice, but it was changed, could it be... his sword was Guardia's regal sword! A sword that had been used by knights and kings many years ago to protect the kingdom and now was a relic kept in the treasury. Marle knew from her travels that it was actually Frog's BraveSword, and deducted with the help of Lucca that Frog and many people after him used it for the good of the kingdom until these days. But that couldn't be the sword. The regal sword was very old, rusted and useless in battle, neither it had had magic powers. This one was new and shined with colors like the knight's armor, and by the way the knight held it against the ground, he had used it to start the Ice Line attack.
The armor completely covered the knight's face, so if Marle knew him, she couldn't tell who it was. He walked among the icy debris and out of the door, being followed by the trio.
Outside the view was not very good. Small battles were fought still but most Guardia knights were on the ground. The outer wall had been severely rammed and a big opening allowed anyone in. TeoOmnicrown was standing just right of the stairs and... Ozzie VIII had the victorious mystics in a square formation in front of him, smaller groups of them were scattered on the field also.
"So, we have a new hero to protect the kingdom? You better surrender, there are no more knights to fight and the king is nowhere to be found. The mystics have finally won!"
Marle's eyes narrowed at the mention of her father by that lowly mystic. The unknown knight coughed in a low volume, but deeply, revealing he was not as young as the other warriors. He turned back facing Marle directly for a moment and took a step ahead. TeoOmnicrown started walking to face him and the heroic trio got battle positions again, but the knight lifted his hands.
"ICE THREE!!!!!" A spiral of blue sparks came into the knight's hand and everything turned blue. The knight waved forward and a blue circular wave spread away. Every mystic it touched, it was lifted on an icy light and frozen pieces came over it, covering it until it was trapped in a solid three-feet-thick block of ice. All the mystic troops, including TeoOmnicrown, was trapped. Ozzie moved into the sky as fast as he could and wrapped himself in a fiery barrier, but still half of his body was covered by ice.
Some of the mystics managed to break the ice and go out with deep wounds, but the rest never came out. Crono jumped around TeoOmnicrown's ice prison, and did a Cyclone slicing it with its prisoner.
"And you never dare to attack Guardia again, Ozzie!" The knight, who indeed had a mature and deep voice, yelled. Ozzie clenched his fist, showing he would be back soon, and disappeared on the horizon like the remains of his army.
"And who might our saver knight be?" Lucca asked. She knew also of the Guardia regal sword. Was this a knight of the past? No, the gates were closed... what did they do with the Epoch at the End of Time?
The knight coughed a lot more louder this time. A wave of colors swept over his armor, and it vanished at the same time the Rainbow Shell appeared floating behind the knight. It fell to the ground with a hard sound, and the Guardia regal sword was also seen laying next to it, antique as always.
Melchior rushed out of the castle meeting with the surprised trio. "Is he okay?", was the first thing he asked. At the affirmative response, he said. "I pulled a little trick that I learned back in Z..."
"Zeal?" Marle asked.
"Yes, in Zeal." Melchior said finally clearing of his mind the doubt if these time travelers knew Zeal. If they had been in Zeal, they surely made a change. If they were the ones who made a change, they surely were the ones who rescued him in Mt. Woe. If they were the ones who rescued him in Mt. Woe, he owed them his life, even though they'll surely say he had paid them enough with his help.
The man behind the Rainbow Shell groaned. His voice sounded even older. Marle's eyes grew huge when she recognized the voice free of the spell. Besides the huge shell came the figure of... King Guardia XXXIII!
"Dad?" Marle barely asked.
"Hi Nadia..." he braced her, almost leaning on her, dead tired. "looks like I finally did something overwhelming in behalf of the kingdom."
"Now you know where did you get your ice character from, princess." Melchior said.
"But how?" Lucca asked.
"I just used the magical energy concentrated over the many years in the Rainbow Shell at the same time. It activated the king's magic, morphed the shell into an armor and gave power to the sword. Well, the problem is we'll need 5000 years to do that again."
"Fine. That's just enough time to recover myself from this." The king heavily walked back into the castle. "Tell the chancellor we have an emergency council in the knight's quarters as soon you find him."
"Why not in the throne room?" Crono asked.
"Because the knight's quarters have very soft beds." He chuckled.
Soul Pendant is property of "Saul" Enrique Saúl González. Most characters and locations are taken from Chrono Trigger and are thus property of Square, I use them in a non-profit activity. Cronx, the Soul Pendants, Bellamantis and any other material original to this story is my own invention and you'll need to contact me for any event dealing with it. © 1998
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