The Darkness From Below
Part IV
(Opening Theme-Johnathon's Theme-"Trapped Under Ice")

    Johnathon Scarsmore looked out from the eyes of a demon, and dispaired.
    He had long ago lost count of how many atrocities Oni had used his body 
for; how many lives had met their brutal end at his hands; how many times 
his consciousness had been ripped from one world and thrust violently into 
another; and how many of those worlds the demon had subsequently conquered.  
Including, God help him, his own.  He had fought with all his will after Oni 
had saved him from that gang by possessing his body; unfortunately for him 
and his world, he was no match for the millenia-old demon.  He was forced to 
watch, horrified and powerless, as the demon burned his world to the ground.  
The ones who died at his hands were the lucky ones … 
    And now, after all the thousands of worlds, he was brought to this one.  
Of all the worlds he had seen, this was the most beautiful; and he knew that 
Oni would destroy it like he had the thousands of others he had been loosed 
upon.  But Johnathon knew that this time, his plans went beyond mere 
conquest, and reached to the throne of Hell itself …
    At first, it was to go as the Malebolgia as planned; Oni would assemble 
the eight Crystals, and, using their power, open a portal to Hell at the Tower 
of Bab-il. Malebolgia and his legions would then rise through the portal; the 
resulting infernal energies would tear the surrounding continent to shreads.  
According to the plan, Oni would then hand over control of this Earth to his 
Master, who would then tell him where to find the hated Samantha Jones.  
    Oni, however, had other plans.  With each Crystal, his power grew 
exponentially; by his calculations, the eighth and final Crystal would push 
him over the edge into Godhood.  Then, he would summon Malebolgia and destroy 
Him, usurping his power and becoming the Lord of Hell.  With the transfer of 
power would come the knowledge that mystically transferred from Lord to Lord, 
and he would finally have Samantha in his grasp …
    At the time that Johnathon was reflecting on this, Oni was on the move to 
Fabul, where the Crystal of Wind lay in wait.  Beside him was the possessed 
body of Rydia, who had been re-animated by a demon called Lynxar.  Ordinarily, 
Rydia's soul would have been too strong to be overrode completely by demonic 
possession, which had necessitated the removal of said soul.  Now she flew 
beside Oni, levitating herself effortlessly.  She knew nothing of Oni's 
ambitions, and he didn't plan on enlightening her anytime soon.  In fact, Oni 
thought to himself, it may become necessary to allow her to be terminated 
before he summoned the Malebolgia … if she began to suspect his actual 
ambitions, the Malebolgia would simply rip him back into Hell and give up this 
world as a lost cause.  Better to lose one Earth than to lose them all …
    In the tiny, sealed-off portion of Oni's mind, Johnathon Scarsmore 
despaired.

******************

    Edward looked glumly out into the mist that covered almost the entire 
ocean.  He cursed himself, as they all had, for being unable to save poor 
Palom and Porom.  Thank the White that they had been able to save Edge … 
but what happened to Rydia?  What had that demon done to her?  Or … could 
it be she had come of her own free will?  Had her time in the Land of Summon 
Monsters really changed her that much?  
    The Bard was so deep in thought, he never noticed Rosa entering from 
behind him.  For awhile, she also still silently behind him, looking out 
into the fog.  She, Edward, and Yang were currently on the airship Tiamant, 
flying to Fabul.  In desperation, Cecil and the others had already collected 
the crystals at Toroia and Damcyan, and were keeping them at Baron.  Cecil 
had also managed to convince the Clerics of Toroia to lend their army to 
the cause; seeing as how Edward was the King of Damcyan, mustering what 
forces they could offer was simplicity itself.  Now they went to Fabul, 
hoping and praying that they could reach the Crystal of Wind before Oni 
did …
    The airship suddenly broke through the cloud cover, and both wizard 
and bard gasped in shock.  The city of Fabul lay in front of them, completely 
untouched by the great mists that surrounded the rest of the countryside.  
Huge wind currents whirled in a spiral around the castle, though they were 
not yet intense enough to cause the Tiamant any harm.  It was these currents 
that were preventing the fog from coming it … as soon as it crept into the 
currents, the wind would tear it to bits.
    That, however, was not what made the two heroes recoil in horror.  The 
city-castle of Fabul was burning.  Massive holes had been punched in the 
stone walls, and great clouds of smoke billowed out of them.  The air was 
heavy, almost liquid, with the stench of blood and flame.  They were too 
late.
    "Rosa!" Yang cried, immediately rushing to the edge.  "Get us down 
there!  NOW!"
    Rosa obliged, casting a spell of teleportation.  They disappeared in a 
flare of white light …
    … And reappeared instantly in Fabul's Crystal Chamber.  The Chamber was 
flooded with refracted sky-blue light … the Wind Crystal was blazing like a 
sapphire sun.  Oni was standing almost at the top of the dais, hand outstretched 
… in another second, he would have it in his grasp …
    "ATCHOOOO!!!" Yang suddenly bellowed, launching himself like a missile at 
the approaching demon.  So enraptured by the Crystal was Oni that he had no 
time to steel himself against the blow, and was hurled to the side, stumbling 
and crashing against a wall.  Yang uttered a terrifying war-cry, leaping forth 
and slashing at the demon with his razor-sharp war-claws.  Oni was barely able 
to recover and render his flesh rock-hard before the Karate master slashed 
into his chest; wounds that would've torn through to his dark heart merely 
scraped deep channels in the flesh, causing black blood to trickle down his 
abdomen.  Oni responded with a ferocious slash, but Yang barely dodged out of 
the way and landed another solid slash to the arm, again digging four channels 
into the flesh from which blood bubbled out.  He was just pulling back for a 
fourth slash when Oni hammered him with a huge fist, smashing brutally into 
the side of his head.  Supernovas suddenly exploded into his vision and he 
fell down, hard.  But before Oni could step forward to finish the job, he 
bent over double in pain, holding his ears; Rydia was doing the same. 
    Dazed, groggily, Yang looked from the two agonized demons to what could be 
causing it.  Edward had his beautiful, golden Twin Harp in his hands, gently 
stroking the cords with his fingers.  A bright golden aura slowly grew around 
him, combining with the still-blazing Wind Crystal's light and turning the walls 
a strange shade of green.  With each wonderous chord struck, the golden aura 
grew in size and intensity, until Oni and Rydia could not stand to look at it. 
    "Now, Rosa, get the Crystal!" Edward sang.
    The white wizard had already thought of that, and was almost at the top of 
the dais when one of the weakened walls behind Edward suddenly collapsed with 
the approaching heat and flames.  Edward stopped playing suddenly, ducking to 
avoid the debris.  Oni saw his chance, and charged forward, as swift and silent 
as an adder striking.  Grabbing the bard's luxurious mane of blonde hair, he 
violently slammed the bard's face into the crystal floor.  There was a sickening 
*snap* as Edward's nose broke, and he cried out in pain.  Oni yanked him back 
up again, wrapped his arm around his throat, and rammed him against one of the 
remaining walls hard enough to shatter the crystal on the walls.  
    Fire suddenly exploded in Edward's stomach, and he once again screamed in 
agony.  Looking down, he saw large, slimy ropes sliding out from a huge slash 
in his stomach.  He fainted in pain and horror as he realized that the demon 
had literally torn his guts out.  
    The demon pulled back a glowing fist to finish the job, when an enormous 
invisible hand suddenly grabbed him and hurled him with bone-cracking force 
against a wall.  Such was the force of the blow, Oni felt one of his iron-hard 
shoulderbones actually bend slightly before returning to normal.  Rydia soon 
slammed into him, knocking the wind that hadn't been knocked out of him in the 
first attack out.  
    Rosa was walking slowly down the dais, an angel of fury with sky-blue wrath.  
In her hand she held the Wind Crystal; hurricane-force winds whipped violently 
around her.  Her eyes almost blazed with fury as she pointed at him.  The 
invisible hand surrounding him suddenly hurled him upward, slamming him face-
first into the ceiling.  Before he could recover, he was suddenly slammed back 
down to the floor, and this time his shoulder began to crack.  He bellowed in 
pain, and began to fight back as best he could.
    First, he concentrated all his energy on increasing his solidity, until the 
winds began to drag him slower, slower, and then not at all.  Turning to Rosa, 
eyes blazing, he snarled, and began to walk slowly towards her.  Rosa summoned 
up the full force of the winds into a single channel that would have blown him 
through the castle walls if the other five Crystals had not suddenly flared up, 
lending their power to the approaching demon.  Yang, who had finally recovered, 
blasted him with a flying kick that would've shattered stone; Oni smacked it 
away, shattering his ankle and sending him crashing down the ground in agony.  
He continued to come closer and closer to the white wizard, she finally realized 
that she was not going to beat him alone.  The top of the castle suddenly 
exploded outward, crashing to the ground several miles away.  Then, with Rosa 
cradling herself, Yang and the unconscious Edward as gently as she could in air 
currents, they began to fly up and out of the chamber.
    "Going somewhere, lovely?" the demon growled, grasping her around the 
ankle.  He began to pull her back down, when Rosa felt something huge and hot 
flare up inside of her.  Oni apparently felt it too, because he snatched his 
smoking hand back suddenly, bellowing in anger and pain.  By the time he looked 
back up, they were gone.  

******************

    Rosa, Yang, and Edward landed on the deck of the Tiamant, which fortunately 
for them had not drifted far.  Rosa immediately rushed to Edward's side, taking 
care not to stop on any of his violated inner organs, and placed her hands on him.  
She bowed her head in sorrow, and began to weep.
    Yang stuggled to make his way to them, despite the tremendous pain in his 
shattered ankle.  "Is he …?"
    Rosa nodded.  "Dead."  Then, she paused, and cried out, "LIFE2!"
    A massive white aura flared around her, and began to envelope the bard.  However, 
as soon as it touched his flesh, it jerked away, repelled by something.  Rosa tried 
again, with the same result; Edward could not be resurrected.
    Tears running from her eyes, she got to her feet slowly, and walked to the 
crawling Karate Master.  She hugged him tightly, sobbing, then placed her hand on 
Yang's calf.  A smaller white aura surrounded her, and went into his broken ankle.  
Yang bit back a scream of pain as the spell slowly rotated the bone back its proper 
spot … and then the two splintered ends melded together again.  A warm sensation 
flooded the affected spot, then faded.  When Yang tested it, he found that the 
fracture had been completely healed.  
    Two seconds later, Rosa collapsed from grief and exhaustion.  Yang caught her, 
and held her, shedding silent warrior's tears.

******************

    With Yang piloting, the airship had managed to make it back to Baron with 
the Wind Crystal.  By the time they reached Baron's outmost mountains, Rosa had 
came to again, and was able to walk around the ship, almost as if in a trance. 
 She hugged the Wind Crystal tightly at all times, as though it would shield 
her from the grief of losing four of her closest friends in one day.  On the 
few times Yang tried to talk to her, she simply stood still, stared off into 
space, and then resumed her trancelike pacings after he'd finished.  Eventually 
he left her alone to her own devices, and covered the eviscerated corpse of 
Edward with a blanket.  
    "I hope you and Anna are happy together, my friend," he said, bowing his 
head to his deceased friend.  He then returned to the pilot's chamber, as the 
ship was nearly over Baron.
    The landing was routine, but provided temporary relief from the grief that 
he felt at the death of his friends.  Once they had landed, he sighed, and went 
off to search for Rosa.
    He found her in the captain's bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed.  When 
she heard the door open, she turned and attempted a smile at the Karate Master.  
It failed, but it was far, far better than the stupor she had been in earlier.  
He walked over to her, and placed a hand on her shoulder.
    "We're home," he said.
    Rosa nodded, and stood.  Suddenly, she moved forward, and hugged Yang tightly.  
Slightly surprised, he hugged her back, letting her do what she had to.  After a 
minute or so, she moved away again, and, after stopping to pick up the Wind 
Crystal, followed him out of the room.

******************

    The surviving heroes again gathered in the war room of Baron, to discuss 
if it was possible to stop Oni and whatever Rydia had become from taking the 
remaining three crystals.  Needless to say, all six were much less optimistic 
and cheerful than they had been just three days ago, when there had been nine 
assembled at the great table.  Edge was present despite the barely-healed burns 
he had suffered; he was bare-chested except for several bandages wrapped 
around the still-sore wounds.  
    Once again, Cecil stood, commanding the attention of all.  "My friends," 
he said sofly.  "As you know, we have already lost three of our number to 
this monster.  In addition, he has five of the crystals, which means as 
powerful as he was before, he is far, far stronger now.  Therefore, I will 
not hold it against you if any of you choose to back away now, for there is 
no guarantee that any of us will live through the days ahead."
    "Screw that," Edge replied darkly.  "No way in Hell I'm gonna forgive 
that son of a bitch for what he did to Rydia and the Twins.  And Edward."
    "I'm not going anywhere," Cid said.
    "A warrior does not flee from battle," Yang added.
    "You know I'll never leave you, Cecil," Rosa said.  "Or any one of you, 
for that matter."
    Kain, however, remained silent, looking down at his hands.  He realized 
everyone was staring at him, and with great difficulty, looked up at his 
friends.  "I …" he began, then paused.  "When I faced Oni at Mysidia … he 
could have killed me as easily as he had Palom, Porom, or Edward.  But when 
he was about to kill me … he hesitated.  And then he spared my life." He 
paused again, taking in a deep breath, as though what he was about to say 
would hurt him physically when it came out.  "I am afraid … Oni will find a 
way to use me as Golbez and Zeromus did.  I could not live with my friends' 
blood on my hands."
    Cecil shook his head.  "That part of you is behind you forever, Kain.  
I walked in the Darkness myself once, remember?  When I went to Mount Ordeals, 
that part of me was fissioned off and destroyed.  The same thing happened to 
you; otherwise, you wouldn't have come to our aid."
    Kain shook his head.  "That's the thing … I *don't* know that I beat my 
dark side.  I remember nothing after I entered the chamber … only that I 
fought a battle, and that I nearly died in the process." He paused. "Rosa … 
when I saw you, the first thing that came through my mind was how much I still
wanted you … as well an intense jealousy of you, Cecil." Pause. "I'm afraid 
that Oni might be able to exploit that jealousy and make me turn against you 
again."
    "Bullshit," Rosa said.  Everyone else jumped at this response, and turned 
to Rosa.  "Kain, what you're going through is the same thing every human being 
on the planet has, at one time or another.  If that's enough to give Oni a 
foothold on controlling us, then we might as well surrender right now and hope 
Hell isn't as bad as everyone says it is."
    There was a silence.  Then Kain nodded.  "Alright.  I'm in.  What's your 
plan, Cecil?"
    Cid stood up.  "I'll take this one, Cecil.  I've been working on some … 
special projects lately, combining technology that we learned from the remains of 
the Giant of Bab-Il with the magic that flows naturally in this Earth.  Needless 
to say, we've come up with some … interesting results."
    With that, he walked held up the bizarre-looking device that had been sitting 
on the table in front of him.  "I call this thing the Razorjack," he said.  As 
he wrapped his hand around the handle that ran horizontally across the bottom, 
two metal blades extended from either side of it.  In between them, a serrated 
metal disk loaded itself and began slowly spinning.  
    "This thing is one of my own personal designs," Cid explained proudly.  "It 
can shoot a hundred of these little disks in twenty seconds, and they can be 
used to ricochet around corners and other such obstructions.  These blades on 
the sides can also be used as melee weapons if needed, though we're hoping they 
won't have time to get close enough to where we'll have to use them."  He swung 
the Razorjack in a wide whistling swath through the air to demonstrate. 
    "All that's very well and good," Yang replied sarcastically.  "But how are 
we supposed to know these things will even cut that thing's flesh?  Most attacks 
just bounce right off of his flesh."
    Cid grinned, and flipped the Razorjack upside-down so everyone could see the 
white gem implanted on the bottom of it.  It glowed dimly.  "That's where the magic 
comes in.  These gems empower each blade with White energy before it's launched.  
It'll slice through demonic flesh like warm cheese."
    Cecil nodded.  "And of course, if that fails, there's still our secret weapon …"
    Cid coughed. "Uhm, there's a problem …"
    The paladin's eyes narrowed.  "What?"
    Cid coughed again.  "Well, you see, we're still in the process of developing 
it … something that big takes time, you know …"
    While all this was going on, a look of confusion slowly spread across Kain, 
Yang, and Edge's faces.  Kain suddenly interrupted.  "Excuse me, but exactly what 
*is* this 'secret weapon?'"
    After a pause, Cecil told them.

******************

    "Malebolgia …"
    Oni knelt at the top of an altar that had been placed on the top floor of the 
Tower of Bab-Il.  The alter was in the center of a huge room, with an enormous 
drop-off to the either side.  Black candles were lit in a inverted pentagram, with 
Oni in the center.  The five Crystals that Oni had managed to collect thus far sat 
at each point of the star; the pentagram itself had been drawn with the blood of 
several of the Dwarves Oni had thought to take prisoner for this exact purpose.  
Off to a corner stood the possessed Rydia, watching with her dead green eyes.
    "Malebolgia, master … I beg you, hear my call …"
    Slowly, a cloud of red mist began to coalesce in the center of the pentagram.  
It gradually shaped itself into a gigantic seven-headed dragon, with scales as 
black as night. HOW GOES THE CONQUEST, MY CHILD? the central head rasped.
    "All is well, my master," Oni replied, careful to keep his hatred out of his 
voice.  We shall see who the "master" is very soon, fool, he thought.  "But my 
newfound servant and I-" with that he indicated Rydia, "-Are having some … 
difficulties with a few of the heroes.  Also, they have amassed an army to protect 
the remaining crystals from us.  The battle could prove … difficult."
    The dragon glared down at him with all seven of its heads.  SO YOU ARE ASKING 
ME TO USE MY OWN POWER TO SEND YOU AN ARMY TO FULFILL A TASK THAT WAS GIVEN TO 
YOU ALONE?
    "Yes, Master," he said, bowing his head and doing his best to sound cowed.  
"However, I've sensed the presence of the White within two of these beings … the 
paladin Cecil and his wife, the white wizard Rosa.  They may have the power to 
stop us unless I am given assistance."
    The titanic apparition bowed its heads in consideration.  Then it nodded.  
VERY WELL.  I WILL GIVE YOU A SMALL BATALLION OF PIT FIENDS AND A BRIGADE OF 
SKAARJ BERSERKERS.  In a small explosion of Hellfire, a small round device appeared 
in front of the kneeling Oni.  IF YOU FEEL THESE ARE INADEQUATE, THIS DEVICE WILL 
ALLOW YOU TO MUTATE THE NATIVE MONSTERS OF THIS WORLD INTO BEASTS THAT WILL SERVE 
HELL FANATICALLY.  
    "Thank you, Master," Oni said, bowing his head.  "You are very generous in 
dealing with your humble servant."
    The Malebolgia waved one of his heads in a dismissive gesture.  SEE TO IT 
THAT YOU DO NOT FAIL ME.  YOU KNOW THE PRICE IF YOU DO.  With that, he dissipated 
into thin air, as all the candles in the pentagram suddenly went out.  Oni stood 
and turned.  Seven twelve-foot-tall Pit Fiends stood at attention, massive wings 
extended, flaming swords sheathed.  The alien Skaarj merely stared coldly at him, 
razor-sharp blades protruding from their muscular forearms.  Nodding to himself, 
Oni squatted and grabbed the sphere that the Malebolgia had given him.  At his 
mental command, the five crystals rose into the air, and flew back into his pouch; 
the mutating device followed suit.  Turning to his new legion, he ordered them to 
a set of barracks he had prepared for this occasion near the bottom floor of the 
Tower.  He also ordered Rydia back to her quarters; she went without a word.  
Then, he looked down at the pentagram that still surrounded him, and began to 
laugh …

To Be Continued