Final Fantasy: Path Of The Dark Knight.

The sky grows black as I ride up to Garliage Citadale, on my Chocobo. No not from evil, -Even though there is evil being committed right now.- but because it is night fall in the lands of Van 'I del. I have to let my Chocobo run free and hope it finds it's way home, because if I tie her up in the Sarumgae Campange, then she will surely be eaten by the Beastmen.
I watch her leave towards the city as she chases the last bit of the sun while it sets.
I grab what I need off her backpack, two vials of Ether, and one Potion, to heal just in case the dirty curs hurt me.
As you may wonder, I'm hunting very vile men.
They have abducted a young women from the city of Juno, and is doing Ifrit knows what to her. Why do I say Ifrit instead of your beloved Goddess? Because she sits on her ass all day fighting for the Paladin's as they both allow the obscenity's to run rampant. So I have turned my back on her to pray to more practical beings that I know exist. Ifrit, Garuda, Titan, and many more. If you call me a heretic fine by it, I am who I am.
I am the Dark Knight.
I enter the darkness in front of me and pull my Scythe from my back as to be ready for anything. I hear noises in front of me but they are only lowly adventures trying to hone there skills against Beatles of all things. I pass by them and watch them fight for a moment.
They are truly untrained. They don't attack together, or even try for skill chains.
They just stand there whacking at the beast hoping that it will die soon enough.
But they are mistaken the Beatle is much stronger then them and their do good Paladin can not hold the hate away from they rest, soon enough the Thief is the victim of it's might. The Mithra cat woman swings her Daggers at him but it evades attack only to drive it's claws through her gut.
The blood and breath instantly leaves her body as she collapses to the floor. Their whit mage panics and try's to heal her but he is more in experienced then the rest. I put my Scythe back on my back knowing what to do next, they begin to scream for my help fearing that there fate will be the same as the Thief's.
I take to steps forward and feel the mana burning my hands as I channel it into the force of thunder, as the Beatle started to scream in pain I increased the power behind the Thunder to make certain this beast was to die.
After I finished slaying the beast I went to see if the Mithra was still in this world, but I soon learned that she was not. Her party was gathered around her and the white mage was holding her crying and screaming. He must have loved the girl I thought to myself. A pain struck through my heart which made me clench my fist in return, for I have remembered my lost love now.
Without even a goodbye I turned and left, not just to leave the scene of the death but also to leave my memories. Sadly though as we all can say that doesn't work, they always follow you.
I walk down the hallways being haunted by memories of her, my Alicia.
Her red hair flying in the air as she attacked her enemy's, her smile when she saved thous stupid people from there death, the way she laughed, the way she...
I was snapped out of my dream by a scream from a Ding Bat as it flew into my armor, I hurt it self more then it hurt me. Stunned by the impact it fluttered it's way back up to face level. Before it even knew what happened I pulled my Scythe from my back and with one cut the bat was know in two. It's purple blood covered my Scythe, "I need to bring a rag next time." I spoke out loud to myself.
The temperature dropped as I continued my decent into the caverns of the destroyed Citadale. At one time this place was one of the most beautiful landmarks around, though that was before the great Crystal War.
Twenty six years have passed, I wasn't even born at the time of the war but from what I understand of it many lost there lives in brave battles against the Shadow Lord trying to hold him back. They won, or that's at least what they thought.
Twenty years later the world was thrown back into chaos when he showed himself yet again.
I was eighteen. But me and my Alica, was two of the best Warriors around at the time, we were part of the Bastok army, and we served with honor.
We were part of the first team who tried to keep his power under control, we failed horribly underestimating his power and it was decided that a team of twelve was to be sent to defeat the beast.
We were drafted and was sent to Xcarbard, sadly since we had to pass through not only the Ragnarok Pass first but also the Bercide Glacier, our numbers fell from twelve to Seven.
It was better to die then to face our leaders with such failure we decided, so we pressed on.
when we arrived at the Castle Zavile Baileys things turned from bad to worse.
We were not ready for so many enemy numbers, are Intel was wrong and now we were reaping the hell of it.
We fought for what felt like sessions until we finally got to the Throne Room.
There was by that time only four of us we were tired already by the fight we experienced on are way here but our determination drove us forward.
We entered and knew that our fates have been sealed at the sight of him.
He was at least twenty feet tall and half as wide, he had horns that curled around like that of rams, and he seemed to be even stronger then Ifrit himself. His face still held resemblance to that of a Galka's, but his eyes were cold and dead.
My heart pumped faster from the fear that possessed me.
"Welcome." He spoke. "You have fought your way this far and has earned the right for this audience with me, now I ask of you what is your names? So that way I may better know the people who has been sent here to kill me."
"You deserve no right Shadow Lord." Said Alicia as she walked closer to the beast. "The only thing you deserve is the blade for the countless drops of blood that has been spieled upon this land because of your transgressions!"
He shifted his wight in his throne, and seemed to be having a silent laugh over what she has just said to him. "You are just like the rest of them thinking that you are holier then thou, but you do not know how black the blood runs inside your own veins. You are just like me. Alicia. Yes I know your name, and I have seen what you can do and I also now how this day will end. And it will be with your death!"
And with that he lunged from his chair and began his attack.
He swung at Alicia, and she rolled away from him and his fist hit the wall instead of her, a chunk of the wall flew off and smacked our last Black mage in the face I turned to try and help but sadly found his skull collapsed inward. A pool of blood formed under the small Taru-Taru's Corpse.
I felt my heart hinge in my throat I was not used to so much death and evil.
I ran to help with the battle, the Dragoon already was attacking with his Wevirin, and the Ranger was firing as many arrows as he could to halt him, and Alicia was going one on one with him.
I ran in to help her and drew my sword and started to attack the beasts legs while she tryed to take out a arm.
He used a burst of black magic to knock us away from him, I was not prepared for this so I was hurled about ten feet back when I landed I had searing pain cut through me.
My breath came out in gasps and as I looked down I saw that I had landed on some very sharp rock that cut through my armor and pierced through my skin.
The Ranger turned, "Garet! Hold on!" He screamed as he began running to me.
The Shadow lord saw this and grabbed him in his hands. He hardly even had a chance to register what was happening let alone scream when he took both hand around him and twisted him like a rag, the breaking of his bones echoed off the wall like water hitting the ground.
I forced myself to stand. I reached around and felt the rips in my breastplate and felt the warm blood on my hands.
I understood now that I was not going to live long.
Alicia continued her attack and to my surprise had cut three fingers from his left hand.
"Just surrender, I'll make use of you." He said to her.
"I would never serve you! You are the incarnation of evil."
"Fine then let us end this game and let you start your afterlife!" As he spoke he let off another blast of black magic making Alicia lose balance quickly he followed this up with two attacks, a quick jab from his now destroyed left hand and a kick into her chest that sent her into the wall.
I watched in horror as I saw the armor that protected her was forced inward riping open her chest as blood began to poor out.
I don't even know to this day what I was screaming as I saw her collapse to the floor.
I stood up and rad at him feeling hate like never before, I swung at him and he met my strike mid air shattering my blade from my hands.
With my blade gone he knocked me to the floor and pined me to it using his foot.
"Oh how the mighty fall!" He screamed with laughter.
I was fight as hard as I could to get up to slay him. 'He killed her.' I thought. 'She's gone. Never again can I hold her in my arms.' -The darkness is everywhere.- 'Never again can I taste her lips. -It's in all of ours souls.- ' Never again to hear her voice utter my name.' -Now is your time!- 'Never again to hear her say that she loves me.' -Rise and bath in his blood! for he has ended your world!-
He stopped laughing abruptly and said. "Impossible! That feeling, I know it to well. You have summoned the true power of this castle!"
He backed away seeming to be in fear for his life.
As I layed there I felt something enter me. I arched my back and screamed in pain as this presence filled me with power I still don't understand. I stood and took a step forward as I began to speak. "You will pay for the blood that you have spilled on this day." Even though it was my words my voice was distorted by this entity.
His eyes flashed back and forth with fear as he tryed attacking again. A right fist flew at me as I rolled away from his fist he fired off another blast of dark power, this time though I didn't move. I stood and let the purple wave of Magic wash over me I felt it set my skin on fire but I wasn't scared, not anymore. Not even a grunt escaped my lips as I watch the skin on my hands peel back from the heat, I watched as my mulches appeared blow the veins that carried blood that was hot enough to boil.
"No! This can't be you can't with stand my power."
I was now only a foot from him as his back was to the wall as I was almost five minutes ago. The words I spoke next was not my own, but what is living within me.
"The power that I had once granted you has now left you. You have became weak through time and your heart has grown soft. Now though I have a host that will have enough power and drive behind him so that I may rule the world."
"No." He said one last time but it was only a whisper.
I jumped with strength that was not mine and grabbed hold of his neck, I locked my legs around his neck as I drove my hands through his eyes. He began to scream but the noise only made me want to drive my hands deeper. I felt what I thought to be his brain on my finger tips, I summoned all the dark power I had and sent fire through my hands to burn his brain. I jumped off seeing the flames within his head overflowing out of his eye sockets. As his screams was raised to the heaven's he fell to the ground with a sicking thud.
I stood there for a minute feeling the power flowing freely through me I looked at my burnt hands as the flames that I summoned stayed on them, what was surprising though is the fact that the burn did not worsen nor did I feel pain from this fire.
"Why?" I heard in a weak voice coming form behind. I turned to see Alicia propped up on the wall, the bleeding had slowed to a almost stop.
My heart ached to think how she saw me now. My armor rip apart, my hands and face burnt beyond recension. She saw the evil I had be come.
I began moving towards her. "Alicia. Hold on I'll..."
"Don't come any closer!" She screamed in horror. "You are not the man I loved, you've succumbed to the power of this tainted land. Forever will you now reap the price of the actions you took today."
I looked at her as tears welled up within my eyes. She was dying, her lips was caked with her own blood and her eyes had grown dim. But still instead of saying our final goodbyes as lovers, she treated me as her foe rebuking for taking vengeance for her death.
"I am still me!" I screamed. "The power that has entered me will never change that fact, nor will it change my love for you."
"You are changed forever more, even if you deny it. One day the entity will own your body and spirit."
Anger was flaring in me for what she said. "I've stood by your side through all your fight and all these years! And now, now! After all that we have seen and loved together as one you would throw it all away because of this. This curse!"
She was still staring at me with hate.
"Answer me damn you!" I ran up and grabbed her by the neck shaking her, only to find that I was talking to the dead. And the dead never reply's.
Out of rage I threw her body across the room, and lost control of all as I fell to the floor crying understanding what I have lost, and not knowing what I had become.
After some time had passed I began walking back to my home no matter how long it was to take. The strange thing was that as I was on my journey back no fiend's, beasts, or demons attacked. I saw them in the caves, and one was in the road in front of me but quickly turned and ran. In fear of my appearance or of my soul I will not know. I passed out when I reached the Battila Downs, and when I awoke I was in the Jeuno Hospital, under the care of Doctor Mortabix.
"I see that you have come around, mind telling your name? For no one knows who you are and you where nearly killed on sight once they found your body."
I layed there refusing to speak, the pain inside was to much to bear. So much loss, death, and regret all in one day.
They left me alone to rot per say, only the nurses came to tend my wounds. They tryed their best to make me Hume again, but that will never be.
Mortabix came in once a week to check in on me, he tryed to start conversations with me but I still did not talk to the man. Even when I would not talk to him he still would ramble about what was happening. He told me about a great peace was settling in on the land, about how twelve brave souls died as hero's to ensure our safety. He did not know that one of his "Hero's" was laying on the bed in front of him.
It was had to keep track of the days after awhile they all seemed to become one, but from what I gathered I was in the Hospital for a grand total of seventy four days.
I didn't know how badly I was hurt until Mortabix informed me one day.
"Well my friend you are nearly fully healed." He was standing at the foot of my bed, he was a Elvan at least eight feet in height with white hair, even though he was still young in age.
"You are quite lucky to be alive today." I turned my head away from him to show that I did not think so. "You suffered alot of damage but thanks to the power of medicine and old fashioned white magic you've survived four shattered ribs, two broken fingers, six broken toes, and one broken arm. One thing we could not heal though was your burns.
"You had around seventy percent of you flesh burned off, their is major damage done to your hands. We have found out that most of your nerve receptors was destroyed in your hands, and you have lost all your hair follicle's on your head.
"I still do not understand how the flames burned through your breastplate seeing that it was made from Mithral. Because if the flame was hot enough to melt it, then you would have not been able to survive."
I finally decided to speak, and was stunned at the sound of my voice it was raspy and not my former voice. "Oh yes I'm so dammed lucky to be alive seeing all the pain I've went through just to get here!" I tryed to turn myself over in my bed but only let out a pain in return.
"By the Goddess he speaks." He said with sarcasm dripping off each word. "As you can now tell, your voice was also damaged from breathing in the flames. Might I ask what kind of accident started such a fire? And where were you when this happened?"
"Castle Zaviles Baileys." Was all I said, I refused to speak the rest of the day but he understood then who I was.
Shortly there after the ambassador from Bastok visited me and started telling me how honored by the fact that I have served the nation and that I am now a national hero. As he continued talking it only made my depression feel worse. The strangest thing of all is I started to feel something stir inside me.
Soon a voice began speaking to me from inside. -He does not know what he speaks off. Your loss, your pain, your hate! Strike this man down let him feel the agony of true pain!- I was tossing in the bed fighting back the power of the being.
"Are you ok sir? Because if not we could always transfer you to one of Bastok's best hospital's. We would do anything to honor the Hero..."
"NO MORE!!!" I screamed arching my back.
Feeling the evil power flowing down my spine and through the rest of my body I finally jumped from my bed and landed on the man.
"You! It is because of people like you that this!" I said rip through the cloths that was provided for me to better show my damaged body. "Happened to me! What have you ever fought for? Have you ever bleed for a reason? NO! You hide behind you desk all day a fight for nothing. You let us, the poor and hopeless fight your wars for you!
"You are worse then a coward." I said picking the man up by the throat. "We all deserve to die sir, but you shall be first!"
And with that I summoned all my strength and with one hand I felt the blood vessels bursting under my grasp as he screamed in pain. My thumb finally pierced his skin letting the blood flow freely over my hands. Soon enough he stopped screaming but not soon enough. The guards that was standing outside of the room as his escort blow through the doors and gasped at the sight.
The first guard ran forward at me, but before he could even draw his sword I drew inhuman strength and threw the body at him. It crashed into him and knocked him down for the moment.
The second guard jumped over his friend but while he was mid air I let the spirit inside of me take over and it was eager to have blood. It shot lighting from my hands at the man and he was as good as a fried chocobo sandwich before he even touched ground.
His friend stood up and screamed his friends name as he ran at me again.
(Don't these people know when to stop?) I thought to myself.
My body moved forward and met the man as he ran. The solider raised his blade high and brought it down. The bad news for him is that the entity raised my hands high and grabbed it as it came down. The man was stunned at the and even the word "How?" escaped his mouth before my knee was placed in his ribs sending him into the wall so hard the it cracked it.
As he hit the ground I noticed the rage, the pain, and the hate that I held in my heart. In that second I understood now what Alicia was saying to me. "What have I become?" I said dropping to my knees.
I still remember it all so vividly because though I am still alive, I am truly dead inside.
You really don't have much hope for a good afterlife after all that I have done in my life. I hope that these ideals of a place for saints and a place for sinners do not exist, for I fear that I will belong to the later.
I fled from the building and went into hiding training myself with my new powers to control them better so I would not hurt anyone else unless I had to.
The voice is locked away in my soul now, the only time he shows himself is when I use my powers. So as I walk the hall of this dungeon I hear him inside my mind.
-You are still far to weak to be the next Lord of Shadow's, but do not fear for every time you use the power's that I have granted you I draw one step closer to owning your body.-
I tend to ignore him, it only worsens if I respond.
I finally find a drop to the bottom floor of the Citadale, where which I can see light coming from a camp. I drop done trying to use as much stealth as my armor will allow.
As I draw closer I now see that this camp is what I seek. It is not adventures seeking to fine tune their skill's but in truth the kidnaper's.
Their a four of them. (But where is the girl?) I began to think.
-Look to the wall's Hero.- It said with a viscous laugh to follow.
She was hung on the wall with parts of her flesh missing. There was runic markings all around the her and on the wall's of the Citadale.
Seeing that the girl was fully striped of her clothing I realized that my Intel was wrong, this "Women." was not but a Girl about the age of seven.
My anger flared at the thoughts of what they may have done to her, but it only worsened when I realized what they were doing with her body.
They was using her flesh as part of dark Alchemy.
Now there are two forms of Alchemy in Van' a deil. There is the type used for medicines for healing, and then their is the type to cast spells and to summon Demon's to this world.
From what I could see from the runic marking's around them they were at working summoning something very powerful.
Now I knew I could not treat these people just as regular Bandit's I would have to be very careful because they would also posses dark powers such as my own.
My mind quickly ran through the possibility's and I came up with a plan to hopefully save the girl and kill these curs without incident.
I moved quickly but silently through the shadows until I was close enough to strike.
I brought my Crossbow up to aim with the one closest to the girl and fired the bolt. The noise of it being fired alerted them to my presence but not before one of the bastards could no longer see out of his right eye.
They quickly gathered themselves for battle and they had a assortment of weapons that any bazaar would be envious of.
The first ran at me as I switched from Crossbow to Scythe. I swung first and he tried to block my attack but quickly found out the hard way about how much power a Scythe possess as it cut him in half cleanly, as for his sword it was shattered just as mine was long ago.
The second one was smarter but not by much. He was a Black Mage by trade it turns out as he shot fire at me. I rolled out of the way to find out that this was only a distraction that I sadly fell for.
The third man was a Galka, strong by nature but slow in the mind. He lept in the air as I rolled to doge the flame. I noticed him halfway through the roll and brought my Scythe up to defend. Sadly though I could not rebuke his attack all the way.
His Great Sword was deflected by only by degrees, instead of hitting my heart it landed in my shoulder making me let out a cry of pain.
He stood over me defiantly mocking me because he though that he has won the battle. But with one quick move I swung my Sycthe with my good arm and sliced both of his legs of at knee level.
He screamed as he fell but instead killing him with my Scythe I thought that it would be better fitting if he died by his own sword. I removed the blade and plunged it in him as he crawled backwards begging for mercy.
"Now for you my flame shooting friend." I said turning to meet him only to see him running for his life. I was going to let him try to escape because I was more then curtain that the beast's that lived her could deal with him easily.
Laughing inwardly I failed to notice the fact that the fourth man was the leader of this coup, and was trying to finish this spell before he died.
As I ran across the field he was finishing the rites of the spell. With no time to act I swung my scythe upward and impaled him in the middle of his chest.
I drew him high in the air to make his wound worse but instead of screaming in the obvious pain he was in he was laughing.
Every word he said he fought to get out through a mouthful of blood. "You... Are... To late... He... Is... coming."
"Who?" I asked.
"Bahamut... The true... Lord of this... Earth." And with that he died.
My blood froze in my veins realizing what who he spoke of.
(He couldn't really tried to summon Bahamut could he?) I thought to myself.
And for the first time since he became a part of me the voice was on my side.
-We can not be sure but whatever he was doing he finished before you killed him. If he was in truth summoning the lord of the sky then this world is in true trouble.-
"Can we stop him?" I spoke out load, even though this was a conversation happening inside my mind.
-We may but we would be needing help from a many of people.-
"Well let us hope that he was just lying to try and scare us."
-Let us hope.- He echoed.
Time moved fast after that. I untied the girl and placed her on my shoulder she was unconscious from blood loss but I knew that she would stay alive long enough for me to get her some help.
As I walked through the Citadale I found the body of the cowardly mage being feasted on by Beatle's, that was now two live that they have stolen, and that's only the one's I know about.
As I walked outside I saw the Hume kneeling down in front of a newly formed mound of dirt that from my guess housed his lover the Mithra thief, he looked at me with hate in his eyes as he came to me and spoke. "Why didn't you help us? You knew we were to weak to kill that beast but you just stood by and watched her die. Do you enjoy watching adventures die or something?"
Knowing his mind frame I decided that it was for the best if I didn't speak.
He noticed the girl on my shoulder before speaking. "Oh I see now, let Johanna die so you could save that girls life. But the girl should be dead not Johanna! We were trying to make a difference in this world!"
I started to walk off ignoring the rest of his rant knowing all to well on how he felt.
The Warrior will always be scared on the inside thank's to the death of his Johanna. But the difference inbetween me and him is my scares are not only in my soul, but also on my face. That is why I never remove my helmet.
I looked up to the sky one last time before setting out again to Jeuno.
The sky was dark but seemed to be growing blacker even the it was in the heat of the day. I knew I needed to hurry back to the town if I wanted this small one to live, but also I needed to hurry back because their was a true storm brewing. And for all of our sakes I hope that man was joking.
My name is Garet, I am the Dark Knight.