Even In Other Worlds

by Rytex


2017 April Fools Special - Clash on the Big Bridge

Even In Other Worlds

April Fools 2017 Special - Clash on the Big Bridge

Nova and Frigoris strode along the street, each wrapped up in their clothing a bit tighter than usual due to the chilly weather of the day.  Yet despite the cold, neither Nova nor Frigoris seemed all that bothered by it.

Then again, Nova loved the cold.  He figured, though, that since Frigoris had been created and lived most of his life on the moon, he likely had no problems dealing with cold either.

Whatever the case, they were quiet as they marched down the street, passing nondescript buildings that would undoubtedly be filling with ponies seeking shelter from the battle to occur as the day wore on.

“Are we going anywhere in particular?” Frigoris asked as they passed an alley.

“Not really,” admitted Nova, shrugging.  “I’m just following this road.”

"Brockdale Bridge is coming up soon,” Frigoris pointed out, noting the bridge’s support beams and wires rising up from the ground a ways away.  “I guess this means you’re looking for a vantage point?  It does offer a good view of the surrounding area.”

“Probably a good idea,” Nova nodded.  “We can decide which changeling brigade to take down first.”

The walk to the bridge was slow.  It was a solid mile away, but the streets were still clear on this side of town.  The worst part was the climb up the ramp to the bridge proper, where the road widened to four-lane with a sharp incline.  It took a bit longer than usual because of such a sharp angle, but once at the top, they had an excellent view of the surrounding section of the city.

“I don’t see anything,” said Frigoris, blocking the sun from his eyes as he stared out towards the skyscrapers of downtown.  “Let’s get toward the middle.”

The bridge ran over several train tracks, and off in the distance, Nova could see the elevated freeway that ran right through the heart of the city, but like Frigoris, beyond that, he could see very little from their current perspective.

From the middle of the bridge, however, a small changeling command post came into view about two miles in the direction of downtown.

“There’s one,” Nova indicated it.  His soulblade appeared in a flash of light.  “Seems like a good place to start.”

“I agree,” Frigoris nodded, stroking his chin thoughtfully.  “If we can make a preemptive strike, it may surprise them that we’re being this bold, and that can buy the others time.”

“Sounds like a plan."

They turned to head across the bridge to the other side, but before they could take a step, a strange tear appeared in the air in front of them.  The space on the inside of this tear seemed to be full of stars and a strange purple void, through which Nova could see a strange crystal landscape.

Before he could get a proper look, or even react, someone stepped out of this tear.

He had a strange, ornate red and gold outfit that looked very Neighponese in origin, with a dual-horned helmet, red gauntlets, and a red sash hanging off his back.  Strapped to said back was a lance, as well as several handles to things Nova couldn’t see, and at each side, three katana sheaths were hanging.  The being had painted grey skin, stripes on his face that had to be some kind of warpaint, white pupil-less eyes, and his mouth set into a snarl as he stepped through.

Following just behind the strange man was a green wolfish beast, with yellow eyes and teeth at least the size of Nova’s fingers.

The red-clothed man grunted as he looked around.

“A modern setting, much like that one time we were in that world with the gun-swords, eh Enkidu?” the man asked in a very bassy, bombastic voice.  “Or that one world with the futuristic coliseum place.”

The beast, presumably Enkidu, barked and wagged his golden tail.

“I wonder where we are,” the man turned around just as the tear in the air vanished, seemingly ignoring Nova and Frigoris.  The weapons the handles were attached to were obscured by his red cloak.  “This place feels very different to the places we usually end up.  The magic feels off, and it’s decidedly more… boring.”

He turned back around.  For the first time since the strange man had stepped out of the portal, he and Nova locked eyes.

For a long moment, neither of them did anything.

The man blinked stupidly, before suddenly leaping backwards in shock and yanking out two of the six katana he had strapped to his sides.

“What trickery is this!?” he demanded, leveling one of his katana at Nova, who shifted his own blade into a defensive position.  “You would dare sneak up on me!?  No one sneaks up on me!  I was trained by Lord Exdeath himself!  The only one who does the sneaking up on of people is me!"

“Frigoris, I have no idea what the hell is going on,” stated Nova to the thestral next to him, who didn’t even seem remotely affected by the strange man.

“Neither do I, Night Master,” the thestral replied.

“Hm?” the man’s eyes narrowed as he seemed to behold Nova’s sword.  “That sword.  I have never seen its like in any realm I have ever visited, and it radiates a strong magical power.  Where did you get it?”

“This?” Nova asked, hefting the blade slightly.  “Forged it, I guess.  From my Source.”

“Your ‘Source?’” the man asked, lowering his katanas.  “What is your Source?  And what’s with the capital S?”

“Erm…” Nova lowered his own sword.  “I… don’t know actually,” he realized.  “Why do we capitalize the letter S there?  It’s anatomical and we don’t spell Finger, Hand, Toe, Nose, or Tongue with capital letters.”

“Your language is strange,” Frigoris observed.  “The Lunarian dialect is far finer and more intuitive, and it took me some time to adjust when we returned.”

“I can agree!” the man proclaimed.  “I met two Lunarians once.  One spoke a lot like those princey types, with the flowers and the ‘thees,’ ‘thous,’ and ‘thys....’  The other had this really deep voice and no one seemed sure whose side he was on.  Wore a lot of black armor, too.  Come to think of it, he sounded a lot like a princey guy too.”

“As for what the Source is, it’s where my mana comes from, which I can use to cast magic.”

“Oh, so you call it mana in this universe,” the man sheathed his two katana.  “All the other universes I’ve ever been in have been really unclear.  They call it MP, and everyone bickers about what it means.  Magic points, Mana points, Mana pool…”

“Who are you?” Nova asked.

“Who am I?” the man asked dramatically.  “Who am I, you ask?  I am known by many names!  Or… nicknames.  Or just descriptions.  Anyway!  I am the Ancient Man of Mystery!  I was the General of Exdeath’s armies!  I seek the rarest and most powerful swords to add to my collection!  I am the mighty GILGAMESH!”

The dog-thing yipped at him.

“And this is my companion Enkidu.  Say hello, Enkidu!”

The dog leapt over toward Nova, jumped up to his face and gave him a lick.

“Please don’t do that again,” Nova said, shoving Enkidu off of him.  “I’m not a fan of my face being licked.”

“You wouldn’t say that if it were Twilight Sparkle,” Frigoris crossed his arms and smirked.

Nova glared at him.

“This is supposed to be a Rated T story, Frig.”

“It’s not explicit,” Frigoris held out his hands in classic “What do you want from me?” fashion.

“May I see your sword?” Gilgamesh asked, holding out a red-clad hand.  “You have my solemn word as a Fabulian that I will give it back immediately.  Without trying to steal it.”

Nova inwardly snorted.  “Sure,” he grunted, tossing the blade at him.  “Knock yourself out.”

Gilgamesh caught the sword and started looking it over.  His eyes alighted onto the gem in the guard, but otherwise, he seemed to be more interested in something unseen.

“Hm… one-of-a-kind rarity, check,” he recited, bringing it in for a quick sniff.  “Holy-elemental, check.  Unbreakable?”  He yanked out a katana and slashed the soulblade with it, edge to edge.  A musical clang sounded, and Gilgamesh inspected it for a moment to find no damage.  “Check.”

And then he instantly stuck it into his cape.

“Muahahahaha!  Excalibur is mine at last!”

And he instantly turned around and tried to run into the portal, only to find that it had closed.

“Wh-what?” he asked, as Nova merely crossed his arms in irritation.  “What happened to the portal to the Rift?”

Enkidu barked unhelpfully.

“What do you mean ‘It closed’?” Gilgamesh demanded, scowling at his companion.  Enkidu merely barked again, leading Gilgamesh to facepalm.  “We had this all planned out!  We find Excalibur, we jump into the portal, we close it!  We don’t find Excalibur, close the portal, then jump in!”

“So, about that ‘solemn word as a Fabulian?’” Nova asked, raising an eyebrow expectantly.  Just who is this guy? he wondered.

“In my defense, I’m not actually from Fabul, so technically my solemn word doesn’t count,” Gilgamesh replied, even going to far as to raise the declarative index finger to emphasize his point.  “What matters is, Excalibur is mine at last!”

“Yeah, about that,” Nova began, before holding out his hand and causing the soulblade to vanish from Gilgamesh’s arsenal and into his own hand.  Gilgamesh must have felt the weight vanish from his back, because he instantly tried to grab it.

“Egad!” he cried.  “Enkidu, we’ve been had!”

Enkidu yipped apologetically.

“What do you mean it’s not Excalibur!?” Gilgamesh thundered.  “It fulfills all the tropes on the checklist!”

“I’m pretty sure if there are copies of this ‘Excalibur’ in other universes, I doubt I forged them from my being,” Nova pointed out.

At this point, he wasn’t really sure whether he found Gilgamesh entertaining or irritating.  One the one hoof, Gilgamesh seemed to be a jovial guy.  Kind of like Aegis when drunk, or Sharp Eye when drunk, or basically any of his friends when drunk.  On the other hoof, however, he had just tried to steal his shiny new sword.

And Nova quite liked his shiny new sword.

“Oh, now he’s disgruntled,” noted Gilgamesh, seeing as Nova was already shifting into a fighting stance.  “Enkidu, boss battle mode.”

“Bark bark-arf bark?”

“Boss battle mode.”

Enkidu howled, prompting a bright flash of light that enveloped all of them.  Nova was forced to cover his eyes due to the sheer brightness intensity.  It was even going through his hand!

When the light cleared, nothing seemed to have changed, though Gilgamesh seemed to be in a fighting stance, twin katana at the ready.  Strangely enough, rather than try to attack, he just seemed to be standing there, “looping” in his idleness.

And for whatever reason, there was music playing.  Archaic-sounding stuff, but still quite pulse-pounding.

Nova grinned, then ran forward.

...except that he didn’t.  For whatever reason, Nova’s body refused to move.  Struggle as he might, he body would not obey his commands.  And what’s more, several strange things had suddenly appeared within a blue box in his vision.

HP:  4206 / 4206
MP:  762 / 762
{||||||||.................}

The thing at the bottom (Nova guessed it was a meter of some sort) was steadily filling at a somewhat quick rate, but all Nova could do was sit there, doing his own little looping idle action while he continued to try to attack.

“It would seem this is your first time in a turn-based battle,” observed Gilgamesh.  “In the spirit of a fair fight, I will give you a brief tutorial.”

Suddenly, everything went grey, except Gilgamesh, who indicated the blue box that appeared in Nova’s field of view.

“This is your heads-up display.  It has information on how much HP and MP you have, and your Active Time Battle gauge.  Basically, if you run out of HP, you get KOed, which means you can’t fight.  If you run out of MP, you can’t cast spells.  And finally, your Active Time BAttle gauce.  You can’t do anything till that fills up.”

DING!The meter filled up, and another blue window appeared in Nova’s vision.

[ATTACK]
MAGIC
STEAL
SPELLBLADE
ITEM

“This is your action menu,” continued Gilgamesh, now indicating the menu that had opened.  “Once your ATB gauge fills, you can do stuff.  You only got four commands, because we’re doing the whole Final Fantasy V system right now, but if you want to guard or defend, just move your indicator to the left, and you’ll be able to guard, which will reduce damage dealt by half.  And if you want to run, which you can’t do during a boss battle, you just move to the right.  But that don’t matter, because this is a boss battle.”

Gilgamesh suddenly shifted into a defensive stance.

“Go ahead and select attack.  Just imagine doing it.”

Nova blinked, but humored him.  The indicator around ATTACK blinked, before Nova felt himself dash forward and slash Gilgamesh right in the chest, and a white number appear above the wound.

Hit! 531

“Not bad!” Gilgamesh encouraged him.  They stood still for a few more seconds, before Gilgamesh shifted into a defensive stance again.  “Now you have magic.  You just think about what magic you want to cast, and the list opens up.  Looks like you have access to all the spells available except Blue Magic, and you have Spellblade, so pick whichever one tickles your chocobos and let her rip.”

Nova examined the list, and grinned.  He certainly had quite a selection.

WHITE

CURE                        LIBRA                        PURE

SILENCE                PROTECT                MINI

CURA                        RAISE                        CHARM

BLINK                        SHELL                        ESUNA

CURAGA                WALL                        BERSERK

ARISE                        HOLY                        DISPEL

BLACK

FIRE                        BLIZZARD                THUNDER

POISON                SLEEP                TOAD

FIRA                        BLIZZARA                THUNDARA

DRAIN                        BREAK                BIO

FIRAGA                BLIZZAGA                THUNDAGA

DEATH                FLARE                ASPIL

TIME

HASTE                SLOW                        REGEN

MUTE                        HASTERA                FLOAT

GRAVITY                STOP                        EXIT

COMET                SLOWGA                RESTART

GRAVIGA                HASTEGA                OLD

METEOR                QUICK                        BANISH

SUMMON

CHOCOBO                SYLPH                REMORA

SHIVA                        RAMUH                IFRIT

TITAN                        GOLEM                SHOAT

CARBUNCLE                SYLDRA                ODIN

LEVIATHAN                PHOENIX                BAHAMUT

“Let’s start with something basic,” Nova said to himself.  “Thunder!”

He felt the power channel within himself, felt himself raise his hand toward Gilgamesh, and felt himself release the spell.

A single bolt of lightning shot out of his palm and smote Gilgamesh right in the gut.

Hit!  121

“Yeah, I was guarding against that, but I also have a 50% resistance to Thunder, so it only does half the damage.  Doesn’t mean much with that level 1 spell you just used, but if you were to use level 3 spells, you would miss out on thousands of damage.”

A yellow aura surrounded Gilgamesh for a moment, before he held out a hand toward Nova brimming with magic.

“Libra!”

Nova didn’t feel anything, though several white tendrils surrounded him.  After several seconds, during which Nova just stood there awkwardly in his idle animation,

NOVA SHINE
LEVEL 52
HP:  4206/4206
MP:  762/762

“Admirable stats,” Gilgamesh praised.  “But you will find that against me, the greatest swordsman in the universe, it will not save you!”

But just for fun, Nova decided to see what he could steal from Gilgamesh.

Stole item!  Genji Glove x1

Instantly, his hands were bathed in a bright glow and as it died, a fine golden glove covered each hand.  With it, Nova felt a substantial amount of extra strength.

“Well, now that your tutorial is over, let’s get on to the actual boss fight!” proclaimed Gilgamesh, Enkidu howling in approval next to him.

The music changed to something that sounded much more metal, which made Nova’s adrenaline start flowing.

This was going to be fun.

Of course, given his good fortune the first time, Nova leapt forward and stole from Gilgamesh again.

Stole Item!  Genji Helm x1

Nova recoiled slightly as a golden light filled his vision, leaving behind a helmet that only increased the extra feelings of strength the glove provided.  He could only imagine he was wearing a fine golden helmet.

“Why does everyone steal things from me when we fight?” complained Gilgamesh.  “Take THIS!”

He dashed forward and slashed Nova right in the chest, dealing 578 damage.

Surprisingly, that didn’t even seem to remotely hurt.  Or do any kind of visual damage.  Nova’s chest was whole and blood-free.

Nova, rather than plot a strategy, dashed forward and hit Gilgamesh right back, dealing a solid 1124 damage.

“The Genji equipment appears to be doing some good for you,” observed Gilgamesh.  “Perhaps this fight will not be as boring as I thought!”

Nova just dashed forward and hit him again while he was talking, dealing 1206.

“Stop hitting me when I’m talking!” protested Gilgamesh.  “Talking is supposed to be a free action!  This is an RPG!  Even plots for universal domination stop when you talk!  It’s warrior’s code!”

Hit!  1173!

“Sorry?” Nova asked, dashing back to his spot.  “Haven’t you ever heard the phrase, ‘All’s fair in love and war?’”

“As a matter of fact, I have not,” answered Gilgamesh, shaking his head.  “Though I suppose it makes sense.  I love war.  So I guess all my tactics are twice as fair!”

A golden aura surrounded him.

FIRAGA!

A massive blast of fire flew out of his outstretched hand and blasted Nova, dealing a pretty heavy 3572   Nova’s HP was down to only 56, and he had to act quickly.

Wait a minute…

He accessed his magic, and focused on casting whatever Curaga was.

CURAGA!

Instant relief washed over him as he was healed for 5468 HP, though he could only hold 4206 of it.

Gilgamesh dashed forward and slashed at his chest with a katana again for 562 damage.

“And I just healed myself,” complained Nova, glowering at the warrior.  “You dick!”

“I know not what a ‘dick’ is, but I can only assume it must be a compliment, because you noted my excellent timing!” replied Gilgamesh.  “Isn’t that nice of him, Enkidu?  He called me a dick!”

Enkidu yipped encouragingly.

“Thank-you Enkidu.  I think you are a dick too.”

“Actually, a dick is an insult,” Nova explained, struggling not to laugh at their expense.

“An insult?  Are you trying to inflict Berserk status?  Because that isn’t how you do that.”

"No, just--” Nova rolled his eyes.  “You know what, forget it.”

He dashed forward and slashed again.  There was a bright flash of light.

CRITICAL HIT!  2204!

“This actually is kind of boring,” Gilgamesh sighed.  “You’ll never make this a challenge at this rate.  I think it’s time to call in some backup!”

With a wave of his hand, two bright lights appeared on either side of Nova, one of each level with him and one of each between him and the latter, slightly further back.

“This’ll be like a classic battle!  Complete with party members!”

The lights vanished to reveal four humans around him.  The first, level and to his right, was a blue-eyed boy about his age, with rather wild brown hair and an air of massive self-confidence.  He wore a simple blue tunic over a creme undershirt and tan pants, with green boot, and in his hand was a golden knife.

The second individual, level and to his left, was a short, blonde-haired, and blue-eyed boy that looked quite young.  He had a yellow tail, wore jeans and white boots under a fine-looking vest and shirt, and carried two jagged, curved pink daggers in a backhand grip.

To the right and behind him was probably the strangest member of the lot, even with the latter being in mind.  He was about the latter being’s age, with darker skin, grey eyes, and blonde hair that looked like it had been blown back by the wind.  He wore armored pants and a loose-fitting open vest with nothing underneath, showing off his torso.  Strapped to his back was a long, elegant-looking spear.

Finally, behind and to his left, was a young woman who looked about his age as well.  She was dressed in a white military-style jacket, with short brown pants and a red cape.  Her pink hair was brushed to the side, though a ponytail hung off the other side of her head, and she surveyed the scene immediately with cold blue eyes. Strapped to her side was a holder for a strange apparatus and on her upper forearm was a strange, square-looking symbol.

Finally, the music changed again.  Now it was distinctly Neighponese, with a plucked string instrument and a very breathy flute taking the forefront.

“Welcome warriors one and all to… ah…” Gilgamesh glanced over at Nova, “What’s this place called again?”

Nova shrugged.

“To whatever this place is called!” Gilgamesh acted like he hadn’t just had to ask his opponent for what the place was called.  “Long and short of it is that I’m fighting the blue-haired guy who looks like a Final Fantasy protagonist if ever there was one.  Even has the magical sword.  Anyway, you’re all here to help him so that it’s a fair fight.”

“This ought to be good,” grumbled the young woman, rolling her eyes.

“It really ought to!” said the first young man, glancing over at Nova and smiling.  “My name’s Bartz Klauser. Some people call me Butz, though, and if you do that, I won't hesitate to KO you where you stand.  What’s your’s?”

“Nova Shine,” Nova answered, nodding at him aand already deciding not to call him Butz.

“I’m Zidane Tribal,” the one with the tail said, grinning.  “Lead actor in the Tantalus theatre troupe, dashing rogue, and thief charming!”

Tantalus? Nova wondered, thinking of Trixie’s father.

“Name’s Lightning,” the young woman grunted, glaring past him at Gilgamesh.  “Ex-Guardian Corps, and Pulse L’Cie.”

“Pleasure,” Nova replied.

“I’m Captain Basch fon Ronsenberg of Dalmasca!” the open-chested one proclaimed, a little louder than he needed to.  Nova immediately hated his voice.  “Don’t listen to Ondore’s lies!”

Nova did a double-take.

“What the actual…”

“Don’t ask,” Zidane rolled his eyes.  “It’s not the first time we’ve met.  There was this whole business with a demon, a dragon, a goddess of light, and a moogle where we met, and he wouldn’t stop shouting it at us for some reason.”

“Aw, come on!  I’m just messin’ with you, Zidane, Nova,” “Basch” said, before smirking and poking himself in the chest with his own thumb.  “Name’s Vaan, Sky Pirate from Dalmasca!”

“Liar,” Bartz smiled cattily at him from his position.

“No, really,” Vaan assured them.  “Just play Revenant Wings.”

“ANYWAY!” Gilgamesh shouted over them all.  “Final Fantasy IV-style party, against me and Enkidu!”

“Wait a minute, you’re Alleyway Jack!” Zidane pointed at Gilgamesh.  “I’d recognize that loud voice anywhere!”

“Spoilers!  Some people haven’t played IX yet!” Gilgamesh berated the young thief.

Nova was getting tired of the inaction.  He had shit to do.  So he dashed forward and slashed Gilgamesh for 1247 damage.

“HEY!  We weren’t done with introductions yet!” Bartz protested.

“I like him already,” Lightning smirked, before yanking her device from its holster and holding it down at her side.  Said device looked like a combination of gun and sword, though with no visible projectile launcher.

“Let’s do this!” Bartz got into a fighting position.

“I hear that!” Zidane also shifted.

“Basch lives!” Vaan yanked the spear from his back.

“Shut up, Vaan,” said everyone, except Enkidu, who barked.

Nova took the opportunity to dash forward and steal himself a Genji Shield, which appeared in a flash on his left arm.  The shield was hexagonal and gold, like the rest of his armor, with a circular symbol in the middle featuring three blue tomoe on a white field.

“Nice, man!” Zidane cheered, before dashing over and slashing Gilgamesh, which was quickly followed by Lightning and Vaan running over to give Gilgamesh a few cuts as well.

Bartz, however, turned tail and tried to run away.

Nova again felt thoroughly non-plussed.

“Sorry about this!” apologized Bartz, suddenly stopping and turning back around.  “The Chicken Knife has a 25% chance of making me run away when I attack, but I can’t get out of boss fights.”

“Why would you want a weapon like that?” Nova asked, channeling some MP for a Firaga spell, which caused a massive burst of fire to erupt under Gilgamesh, dealing an impressive 3768 HP of damage

“Better stat upgrades!” Bartz answered cheerfully.  “If I ran away from 15 battles 17 times, I got max stat boosts on it!  Like Speed and Power and stuff!  Also, I can do this!”

Bartz dashed forward and slashed Gilgamesh, before hopping over to Enkidu and giving him two slashes, before hitting Gilgamesh one more time.  Each hit was weaker, but totaled together, they amounted to more.

“Not bad,” Nova nodded as Zidane dashed forward and slashed Gilgamesh again.

“Cut the chatter, you two,” barked Lightning, as a red light surrounded her, and she dashed forward to lay three consecutive hits on Enkidu.  “We have a boss fight to win.”

“I know just what to do here!” Vaan grinned, before punching his fists together as a magical wall appeared around him, surrounding him in yellow light.  “STEELGUARD!”

“That’s not even from your game!” Zidane pinched his nose and shook his head.

“I’m helping, guys!” Vaan proclaimed.

With it being Nova’s turn, he wanted to try out how this whole Spellblade thing worked, so he opened the menu to find it was very similar to the magic menu.  So he imbued his sword with Lightning.

A massive bolt of lightning lanced down from the sky and struck the metal of his sword, making it glow gold.

“Oh, kickass!” Nova admired the blade.

Meanwhile, Bartz dashed forward and did another four-hit combo on Gilgamesh and Enkidu, followed by Zidane.  Lightning, however, charged up a good amount of energy, before shouting “Ruinga!”

A black ball of energy surrounded by a corona of white light shot from her hand and smote Enkidu, where it exploded to deal damage to both of them.

“Stage one’s almost finished,”Bartz observed, before Vaan lunged forward and jabbed Gilgamesh with his “Zodiac Spear.”

“Stage one?” Nova asked, confused.

“Oh yeah, boss fights like to be multi-stage.  We deplete enough of Gilgamesh’s HP, and he shifts into another stage where he has stronger attacks and a different form.  Happens all the time.”

Gilgamesh, however, didn’t seem to want to wait until Stage 2.  He dashed forward, slashing through Lightning with his katana.  There was a bright flash of light and the word CRITICAL appeared in Nova’s head, followed by a worrying 4112 points of damage.

Lightning groaned painfully and slumped to the ground, dropping her gunblade.

“I got this,” said Bartz, opening the inventory and tossing a strange tuft of feathers that looked like Philomena’s.  “Phoenix Down!”

Lightning glowed with light, before she let out another painful groan and pushed herself up to her knees.  Her HP was still very low, though, and it was Nova’s turn.

Fortunately, he remembered his curative magic.

“Curaga!” he shouted, channeling the magic and aiming it at Lightning, who shone with green light as all of her HP climbed back up.

“Thanks,” grunted Lightning.

“Don’t mention it,” Nova replied.

Zidane jumped forward and put one more slash on Gilgamesh.

“How long is this stage gonna last, anyway?” he asked.

Enkidu barked unhelpfully.

Nova, now ready to try out the lightning blade he had been holding in, was eagerly anticipating his turn.  Lightning and Vaan both took their turns, and finally, it was time.  Nova dashed forward and slashed Gilgamesh, which also let off a blinding golden light.  All in all, Nova’s attack had dealt 3228 damage.

“Well alrighty then!” Gilgamesh drew himself upright and sheathed his katanas.  “Now the real fun begins!”

“I guess this is Stage 2?” Nova queried.

“Looks like it,” Lightning nodded.

“Yep, bosses like to talk before they shift,” Bartz answered.

“Enough expository banter!” Gilgamesh announced, his hands reaching across his body and behind his back, as if he were hugging himself.  “Now we fight like men!  And ladies,” he amended, glancing at Lightning.  “And men who dress like ladies!”

“Hey!” shouted Vaan.

“For Gilgamesh,” he began to glow a bright golden color, “IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME!

Gilgamesh pulled his hands back in front of his body, and in addition to the first two, there were four more for a grand total of six hands, and each one held a different weapon!

The first hand held a massive sword.  It had a long handle for two hands, a rather ornate hilt, two holes bored into it just above said hilt, and a sharp edge that ran parallel to a squared edge until about three feet up the blade, where it tapered off to a sharp point.

The second hand held a shining white blade with a W-shaped blue hilt, a cross-stitched grip, and a triangle made of three smaller triangles embossed close to the bottom of the blade.

The third hand held another incredibly long blade, though this one looked far more conventional.  It had a T-shaped handle and its blade extended for quite some length.  It looked like it could come up top Nova’s chin, from point to handle.

The fourth hand held a giant key, with a handle surrounded by a golden guard and a silver pole, with teeth attached that formed the silhouette of a crown.  Dangling from the opposite end, under Gilgamesh’s hand, was a chain linked to a strange mouse-head-looking bauble.

The fifth blade had a clawlike guard, with a red gem set into the center, a black shape in the gem making it look like an eye.

Finally, the sixth blade looked like an ordinary sword, albeit a bit more regal.  Nova could sense a great power residing in the blade.

“Behold!  I possess the strongest swords in all of the omniverse!” Gilgamesh announced, holding them all into combat-ready positions.  “No one can stand against the might of the Buster Sword, the Master Sword, Andúril, the Keyblade, the Sword of Omens, and the mighty Excalibur!

You face the mightiest swordsman in all the universes!  You face ME!  GILGAMESH!  Long have I sought the blade of legend!  Scoured have I the furthest marshes, east to west!  And now my search brings me here!  To you!”

He began to glow gold.

“Your weapons are forfeit to me!  ULTIMATE ILLUSION!

He dashed forward and hit Nova right under the chin.  Nova yelped in pain, but he had no other opportunity to react, as he was tossed into the air.  Gilgamesh jumped up and slashed him four times, before all six swords glowed a bright light and he cross-slashed all at once.  Nova felt the air around him explode, and he collapsed back to the ground.

His HP was down to 34.  He had been lucky to survive that attack.

“I got you, Nova.  Curaga!” Bartz activated his spell, healing Nova back to full.

“And now, the real fight begins,” Gilgamesh struck a dramatic pose.

"And he even got The Zodiac Age version," commented Gilgamesh, sounding pleased.

The music changed again.  It was now a full orchestra, and dare Nova say it, this one seemed to be the best version of all the ones he had heard behind them thus far.

“Enkidu!  White Wind!”

Enkidu yipped, and a strange gust of wind blew past them, swirling around Gilgamesh and Enkidu with visible white gust-trails.

They were both healed for 5264 HP.

“We gotta get rid of Enkidu first, or he’ll keep healing Gilgamesh with that White Wind of his,” Bartz called out.

Nova, however, opted to try and steal one more time.  Sure enough…

Stole item!  Genji Armor x1

Nova’s chest flashed a bright golden light and ornate golden armor appeared on it, filling Nova with a sudden burst of strength.

“I got this,” Vaan announced, suddenly glowing with a golden aura.  “Quickening!”

The scene around them vanished, as Vaan began to channel as much power as he could.

“I’ve got a surprise for you,” he said quietly, before releasing the energy as a massive burst of red tendrils that snaked around Gilgamesh and Enkidu.

“I’ve got it!”

The scene changed, as Vaan again channeled energy, before releasing it in a swirl of white energy that surrounded all of them, creating a massive cyclone.that shot off bolts of energy and enveloped the two enemies.

“Not a chance.”

Two massive balls of fire appeared in Vaan’s hands.  He tossed one high into the sky, before throwing the other one at blazing pace to a point where the two balls of fire collided, creating a massive explosion that consumed Gilgamesh and Enkidu both, who sttod as though nothing were happening.

LUMINESCENCE

A strange round sigil appeared behind Gilgamesh and Enkidu, with energy collecting near the heart of the sigil, before suddenly bursting forth in a massive stream of light tendrils, drilling themselves through their victims.

When it all cleared, Gilgamesh and Enkidu both had been hit for 9999 damage.

“Never thought I’d say this,” said Zidane, smirking, “but that was a hell of a move, Vaan.”

Vaan thumbed his nose with pride.  “Just doing my regular work as a Sky Pirate.”

“My turn!” said Zidane, before being enveloped in a bright flash of light, causing his clothes to vanish but replacing them with pink fur that kept him modest.  “Grand Lethal!”

Zidane was surrounded by a bright red light, before breams of energy lanced out and smote Gilgamesh and Enkidu both, creating massive explosions in their wake.

When the dust settled, Gilgamesh and Enkidu both showed up 9999 damage.

With that, Enkidu yipped and scampered off outside the boundaries of the battle.

“Enkidu!  You can’t leave me!  I thought we had a thing!” Gilgamesh protested at his faithful companion.

Enkidu barked.

“What do you mean, ‘my HP ran out and those are the rules?’  We… we’re Gilgamesh and Enkidu!  We make the rules!”

Enkidu just arfed.

“Fine,” said Gilgamesh, hefting his many blades.  “I can handle things myself.”

“Not like I can, you can’t,” said Lightning, stepping forward.

Army of One

Lightning dashed forward with her gunblade and began absolutely going to town on Gilgamesh, laying down an absolute barrage of attacks, complete with acrobatic flips and powerful kicks, each attack dealing several thousand HP in damage, finally culminating with a powerful kick to Gilgamesh’s face, before leaping backward and resuming her combat stance.

“...ow,” squeaked Gilgamesh.

“Looks like it’s my turn,” said Bartz, before shining gold as well.  Three stars appeared above his head.

“Class mastery!”

Eight green orbs appeared around him, spinning at a frenzied pace.

“Dualcast Summon!  Syldra!”

Out of thin air, a massive sea creature appeared, almost looking like a turtle without its shell.  It let out a musical cry, before opening its mouth and collecting a massive amount of energy and releasing it in a burst of blue and gold light, before vanishing.

“Bahamut!”

As Syldra vanished, a colossal navy-blue dragon took its place.  It, too, opened its maw and collected an enormous amount of energy, before releasing it in a humongous brst of blue flame that completely engulfed Gilgamesh where he stood.

When it all cleared, again, Gilgamesh had been dealt 9999 damage.  He had to be getting close now.

“My turn!” Gilgamesh announced, looking quite pleased with himself.  “Bad Breath!”

Gilgamesh stuck the key sword into the ground and reached around into his coat, where he pulled out something wrapped in tin foil.

“Is that a burrito?” Nova asked, thoroughly confused.

“Indeed!  A black bean and roast chocobo burrito, made by the Chipotle in the Void.  Had no idea they had a location out there.”

“Chipotle have branches everywhere,” commented Vaan in disbelief.  “Even in Rabanastre.”

“Behold, your doom!” said Gilgamesh, before ripping off the tin foil, shoving it into his mouth, chewing a few bites, swallowing, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin, tossing a random bone to Enkidu, pulling out a book while he waited, reading a few pages out of a sumerian epic poem, and then suddenly blasted a massive cloud of noxious green gas from his mouth at all of them.

Nova ducked behind the Genji shield and was pleased to discover it absorbed the noxious fumes, but his teammates weren’t so lucky.  All of them suddenly seemed to be affected by “status ailments,” and a ton of them.  Poison, slow, blind, confuse, and so forth.

“God I hate that move,” Bartz groaned even as he spun around thanks to his confusion.

“For goodness sake, Nova, do something!” Zidane called out to him,

Nova knew he needed to cure these status ailments, so he accessed his items inventory.  But before he could use whatever a “Megalixer” was, Gilgamesh glowed gold and held up the Sword of Omens.

“Sword of Omens!  Give me power beyond power!” Gilgamesh shouted, before the gem in the blade glowed a bright red.

“Monarch Sword!” he shouted. before dashing forward and slashing with all six blades through all of them several times.  When he was confident he had hit them several times, he leapt into the air, holding all six swords above his head.

“Face my wrath!”

A tremendous collection of energy appeared at the point all six swords intersected, before he tossed it forward, causing a massive explosion of lightning all around.

As the light cleared, Nova felt himself sink to a knee, even as his allies did next to him.  Things were looking bad…

“Now witness the power of the greatest blade of legend!” Gilgamesh shouted, before dashing at Nova and slashing him with the mighty Excalibur.

Hit!  1

“Wha…” Gilgamesh blinked.  “Not again!  Enkidu!  We found Excalipoor again!  We went over this!  It’s not supposed to only deal 1 damage!”

Enkidu yipped.

“Mega...lixer…” Nova grunted, tossing a strange golden bottle into the air.

At once, welcome relief seeped into him as his HP was restored, Around him, his four allies also saw their HP return to maximum, and their status ailments vanishing.

“And now, it’s my turn!” Nova said, feeling more than a little empowered by the Megalixer.  “STARFALL!”

He felt a massive well of power deep within him and reached for it through his Source, knowing it would be the key to victory.  Once he felt it, he dove in, filling himself with every last dreg of power he could muster.

He had so much power, he could feel his feet leave the ground as he stared down at the master swordsman.

“Oh shit,” groaned said swordsman.

Nova felt the blue glow around him, before he finally released it, sending a scatter of blue stars flying at Gilgamesh, each one exploding upon contact with the man, and each dealing several hundred HP of damage.

The barrage lasted several seconds, during which time Nova figured he probably had enough time to make a sandwich or two and come back, but when it all ceased, he knew the battle was over.

There was a bright flash of red light, and Gilgamesh was tossed backwards out of the boundaries of the battlefield.

For just a moment, all was silent.

But then a victory fanfare started playing, and Nova felt himself automatically strike a dramatic pose, even as Lightning sheathed her gunblade, Zidane leapt up and held a victorious fist in the air, Vaan tossed the spear up, kicked it back into the air when it fell, and caught it on his shoulders, and Bartz kept raising his fists up and down over and over, and his golden Genji armor disintegrated into the air around him.

They had won.

“Not bad, Nova,” remarked Frigoris, stepping forward.  “An unorthodox battle, but you adapted well.  I’m sure Princess Luna will be very interested to hear about this.”

“This chapter doesn’t even have any impact on the story,” Nova replied, his blade vanishing in a flash of light.  “And for that matter, it’s out of order.  We’re supposed to be going to my apartment right now anyway, because this chapter was supposed to be done after the next one.”

“Well, if the author would focus on his stories instead of finding excuses to not work on them, we could be halfway into the fourth planned story by now,” Frigoris commented wryly.

“Welp, it’s been fun,” said Bartz, as another rip in the universe appeared behind him.  “I gotta get back to my world now.  Catch you guys alter.  Fun fighting with you, Nova!”

And with that, he stepped through and the door shut.

“I second that,” Zidane smirked.  “But I gotta be getting back to Gaia.  I have me a girlfriend who’s probably wondering why I vanished halfway through a conversation on Lord Avon’s works.”

“Did you just say ‘Lord Avon’s works?’” Nova asked, suddenly very interested in talking about theatre, but Zidane had already backed through the portal behind him and it closed.

“I gotta get going too.  Just remember,” said Vaan, one foot already in the tear, “don’t listen to Ondore’s lies!”

And before Nova could shout after him, he too was gone.

“They pretty much said it all,” Lightning shrugged.  “It’s been… not awful.”

“Love you too, Lightning,” Nova replied in his favorite deadpan way.

Lightning gave a ghost of a smile, but then she too stepped through her portal, and was gone.

“What a strange crowd,” remarked Gilgamesh, stepping forward.  “That was a most entertaining battle, Nova Shine.  I very much enjoyed entering comabt against you.”

“I admit, I had a lot of fun there,” Nova smiled at the six-armed man.  “Only, don’t try to steal my sword if we meet again, would you?”

“I give you my solemn word as a Wutai Elder.”

“You’re not a Wutai Elder, are you.”

“No, but I’m closer to that than a Fabulian,” Gilgamesh admitted sheepishly.  “Come, Enkidu!  We have more worlds to search!”

Enkidu yipped, but before he followed Gilgamesh, he ran over to Nova and gave his face a long lick.

“Alright, alright, stop it already,” Nova shoved the canine off of him, but he scratched behind his ears all the same.  “Keep him out of trouble, alright?”

Enkidu barked happily, before following Gilgamesh as he stepped through the portal.

“And so Gilgamesh and Enkidu continue on their epic quest in search of the legendary Excalibur!” announced Gilgamesh.  “Enkidu, let’s go!”

And with that, Gilgamesh’s tear closed, leaving Nova and Frigoris standing alone on the bridge.

“Welp, that was fun.  Who’s for Chinese?” Nova suddenly asked, clapping his hands and starting to stroll toward the other end of the bridge.

“Whatever Chinese is, it sounds delicious,” said Frigoris, and the two of them continued on their merry way in search of food and not changelings.