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potassium-pilot · 1 year ago

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FFXIVWrite 2023 Prompt 5: Barbarous

(cw: gore)

On occasion, Lyna would climb the Crystal Tower to inspect the Ocular. Especially as one Warrior of Light liked to return things that the former Exarch and the wayward Scions of the Seventh Dawn may have forgotten and want back, Lyna made it a point to ensure there was nothing that remained to return to the Source. Today, she asked a soldier named Loi-Rost if he could locate a specific tome that G'raha wanted returned to him as he could not find it in his current residence. Upon entering the study, he searched about the place looking for the missing book. His search was apparently the last straw for a shelf that had one foot into its grave as a screw gave in and dropped every book on top. The soldier managed to avoid collision with all except one book that dropped on his head when he least expected it.

He picked up the book and read the title.

The Angel of the Seventh Hell by Quintus van Cinna.

"Hm. Interesting title. Was this it?" the soldier asked.

He opened the tome and read through the introduction.

"Were I the one who attempted to coin the name, I would have chosen something less reminiscent of the savage gods of Eorzea, but considering who wrought this creature upon us, I daresay nothing could fit better. She rained down fire and blew winds of destruction. Covered head to toe in a blue shield made of aether, extending aetheric wings from her shoulders, and uttering only vile screeches to her enemies, there's not a unit left that has not heard her coming in a storm of desolation. Our soldiers lamented in salvation for moons on end. She thirsts only for blood, seeks only pain, and leaves naught in her wake. None know of her origins. But I do. I, Quintus van Cinna, Legatus of the former Ist Legion, hereby chronicle this testimony of who the Angel of the Seventh Hell is and why she inflicted such torment upon Garlemald's finest.

"Hm...I don't think this was it", remarked Loi-Rost.

Regardless of whether he wanted to hear this tale or not, his newly gained Echo forced him into a vision. His head throbbed and he knelt to the ground.

---------

Loi-Rost did not recognize this land. Black clouds hanged over the sky, wreckage of strange ships were strewn about, fire raged throughout it, a strange blue liquid puddled throughout. Not a trace of green could be found here. He found an older man with a big beard and a strange stone on his forehead overseeing the battlefield as a war raged on. He could feel Quintus' emotions, and read that the war has raged on for a long time and fortune favored his enemies, but he also seemed to know that soon the tides would turn somehow. He was also tired. Very, very tired.

He had finished off a kill when he looked over to a soldier that Quintus seemed to regard highly as he fought off an Elf man with wavy black hair, blue armor with gold adornments, and a large azure sword. Behind him was a Hume woman with short blonde hair, silver armor, and the same stone in her head, fighting with a more standard sword against another with the forehead gemstone, yet another that Quintus seemed to recognize.

Who was the enemy, Loi-Rost thought.

They fought on, Quintus overseeing before he would step in. He turned his head to the left and noticed someone he recognized well running into the scene, and knew better than to engage her unless it was absolutely necessary. The soldiers, however, seemed to recognize them as one screamed, "The Warrior of Light!"

Loi-Rost knew who she was- the Warrior of Darkness. He proudly fought alongside Dia before. She restored the night to Norvrandt. She was a hero.

Quintus seemed to believe otherwise. He turned his head back to the soldiers fighting off their targets. He saw hands move towards pouches and pull out strange devices of some sort.

Quintus called it, "Black Rose."

The soldiers threw these devices at their targets and they became enshrouded by a black cloud of sorts.

Loi-Rost watched the light leave the eyes of both of them. The Elf man crumpled to his knees and fell over to his side, limp as a rag-doll. The Hume woman fell straight backwards. Quintus recognized this man as an important target- the Lord Commander of the Ishgardian Temple Knights. According to him, that was the first of any command to fall. Black Rose seemed to work perfectly.

For the efforts of those soldiers, they each earned a spell to the chest to knock them out. Dia ran to the Elf man and held him in her arms. She called out to her fairy companion, Eos. As her futile attempts at healing ultimately failed her, she called upon something even more powerful. A bigger fairy with larger feathered wings that she called Seraph appeared in Eos' place.

He laid still, not an ilm moving, not a breath taken, beyond the touch of any helping hand.

That soldier she knocked out before tried to creep up and gain an advantage on her, but he didn't stand a chance.

Seraph placed a hand against Dia's heart and phased into her. Even Loi-Rost could see the effect this made on her- her veins were glowing blue with aether, she was trembling, her skin and hair were lightening.

When the soldier lifted his sword to end her, he and his cohort were blasted away by a force of aether as giant wings extended rapidly from her shoulder blades. The soldiers stared up at her in horror as she reached for the azure blade by the Elf man's corpse, gripped it by the hilt, and made a supernatural leap towards his killer.

She stabbed him through the heart at first, and found no peace with simply that. She sliced through him, mutilating him as bone cracked and muscle flew in different directions. As she annihilated him, a blue protective aetheric shield slowly crept over her body, forming a new armor that fit directly to her skin. All that remained of the soldier when she was finished with him was mangled flesh and bone. The killer of the blonde Hume woman was next as she made one more leap and gave her murderer much the same treatment.

Quintus didn't seem to feel much of anything at this point. He reached for his gun holster and fired at her head. When they bounced off of her head, no matter how many bullets he shot, he quickly recognized that firepower would do no good. Soldiers attempted to restrain her and kill her once and for all, but for all the numbers they had, she had fire. There was not a soldier left that was not incinerated by her as she unleashed a massive flood of fire on all fronts in a great sphere around her. Slowly, her magic levitated her off of the ground and the sphere of fire became an all-encompassing presence, her angelic shields protecting her from burning with it.

He gave the order. "Retreat!" The unit fell back before they too would succumb to flame. As Quintus retreated, he watched his back to see what the creature would do. The fire grew bigger and bigger, making his decision quickly become the wiser to maintain. Manpower was sparse in such times after all.

Once he was far enough away, he watched as this supposed angel descended unto the unholy ground beneath her feet. She dropped to her knees, faced towards the Elf man, and dropped her head into his chest. With that, a horrid screech like a thousand voidsent echoed through the battlefield, its force rattling even the heavy machina that laid about the place. She could have moved mountains if she wished with that.

The memory cut to writing in a notebook.

We had slowly picked off each of these "Scions", and even managed to take down a powerful ally of theirs, the former Azure Dragoon. None remained to aid her in battle, and she relied solely on her wits and prowess in battle. Our researchers knew enough about aether manipulation to know that one normally cannot draw on their life force for very long. The Angel of the Seventh Hell, however, was not a normal woman. She remained in this inhuman state for nigh on a moon. Just as I watched her rise, however, I watched her fall. She destroyed most of the forces of the Ist legion, but I had an idea to remove her from the battlefield. There was one last place that was an important beacon for the traitor Garlond's research- the Crystal Tower of Mor Dhona. If we attacked that, it would most certainly gain the attentions of the once-Warrior of Light. The last of my legion gathered outside the gates that were opened by the Sons of Saint Coinach not long ago. We had every intention of destroying it to gain her attentions, and such it did, for who appeared but the Angel herself, swooping in to destroy our hard work. They tried and failed to take her down with their own weapons, but their efforts managed to bring her close enough that the explosives could be detonated on top of her. Not even the all-powerful Angel of the Seventh Hell could withstand the might of Garlean technology. Her shields had broken and her fire had dimmed. The Warrior of Light had finally returned, and my legion extinguished her flames forevermore. With that victory, however, was a terrible price paid. Most of my men were killed by the explosion. I gave up my legion that my country would live on, free of the terror this savage wrought. What a pathetic creature, really; a horror driven purely by sentiment. How many of my countrymen feared her, when in truth, hers was a campaign of weakness. She fought for no country, no city-state, her loyalty extending only towards friends and loved ones. There is no glory in her victories- only hollow ideals that she soon ground into a fine powder beneath her feet. To the best of my ability have I written my full account. Once the shelters are safe for the emperor to leave, I intend to deliver this account to him.

Quintus placed down his quill and looked to the mirror on the side of his desk. His face was sunken and pale, his hair thin and mostly gone and his chin trembling. The man hadn't had a meal in a long time. Loi-Rost could feel the gnawing hunger in his stomach. To him, however, starvation would be better than allowing Garlemald to fall.

--------

Loi-Rost returned from the Echo vision. His ears fell flat against his head, his tail grew bushy, and he shivered in fear at the idea of what Dia became. He stared down at the book, wide-eyed. What should I do, he thought, other than burn it?

"Oh, hello there!"

He yelped and jolted upward before he snapped his attentions at the source of the greeting.

"Sorry! Didn't mean to startle you", Dia apologized before putting on a reassuring smile. "If you're not supposed to be in here, don't worry. Neither am I."

Loi-Rost gave a nervous laugh.

"Anyways, I think you might be holding what I'm looking for. Can I see it?"

The Mystel handed the book to the Elezen and she looked to the cover.

"Yup! This is the one. G'raha wanted to talk with me about this, so he asked me to grab it for him. I haven't read it myself though."

"No?"

Dia shook her head and said, "Mm-mm. I haven't read a lot of what happened in the 8th Umbral Calamity, to be perfectly honest. I read one thing, though."

"Wh-what was that?"

Her face became more solemn. "There's a version of my journal that has my end of the events of the Calamity. G'raha let me take it at first, but after reading through it...it's better off staying in here. The whole of it."

"Y-you think so?"

Dia nodded. "It's hundreds of years old, so not all of it survived, but from what I read...that was a different woman. A very different woman. She should be at rest here. She deserves that much, at least."

Loi-Rost blinked.

"Ah, don't mean to bore you with everything. Thanks for finding it!" Dia waved and added, "Take care!" She then walked to the portal and returned to her world.

The Mystel left the Ocular to climb back downstairs and report what happened to Captain Lyna. He kept shaking as he climbed. The vision seared an important lesson into him; do not cross the Warrior of Darkness.

#ffxiv #ffxivwrite #ffxivwrite2023 #quintus van cinna #f elezen wol #aymeric de borel #lucia goe junius #sometimes a girl just needs to turn her character into a final boss in a fit of madness #for fun #i also like thinking about 'what's she up to in the 8UC timeline?'#answer is this

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