Dark Vana'diel

Twenty years ago, the Crystal War brought much death and destruction to Vana'diel as the Shadowlord's vast murderous armies of Beastmen did battle with the Great Nations of the free world and levelled city after city with a blood thirst that could not be quelled.

The biggest defeat was that of Tavnazia, when a huge army of monsters cascaded down upon it, breeching the outer walls and slaughtering everyone within. To this day there is only thought to have been one survivor of the fall of Tavnazia, Aldo. However, the Shadowlord's armies suffered many casualties and this was a turning point in the war effort.

The great engineer, Cid, operating in conjunction with Archduke Kam'lanaut began work on an airship. Cid's ingenious design coupled with the crystal powered engines provided by Kam'lanaut created the first airship prototypes. Sadly the design was not finished in time for the final battle and the decision was made to rally the remaining forces of the Great Nations and marched on the Shadowlord's castle deep inside the snow covered northlands of Xarcabard.

An army of the Shadowlord's most powerful creations, Demons, awaited the armies of light and they could not push through en masse. Volker, a soldier of Bastok, took with him the five heroes of the Great Nations and pushed through the flank of the Demon hordes, eventually making it to the keep of Castle Zvahl.

Confronted with the Shadowlord, the heroes lead by Volker managed to overcome and defeat the horrifying monster and leader of the Beastmen. As his bloodied corpse toppled to the floor the Demon army outside fighting the surviving armies turned to dust and vanished.

Twenty years after that fated day dark things began to happen on Vana'diel. While the once Great Nations squabbled over what land was rightfully theirs after the disbanding of the one army at the end of the Crystal War a darkness began to spread from the black Castle Zvahl and rumours of the Shadowlord's return began to spread. The Beastmen once more rallied under a new flag and set about trying to bring about the return of their deceased leader.

The Demons of Xarcabard were formed once more and armies marched upon the snowy lands. The three nations now somewhat separated from the Grand Duchy of Jeuno set about leading their own investigations into the possible return of the Shadowlord eventually resulting in a joint assault of the castle in a series of events that more than mimicked what had happened twenty years prior.

Many adventurers joined the battles as no army was nearly as strong as it had been. During the final battles of the second war, eighteen strong adventures became separated from the main attack force deep inside Castle Zvahl. Rather than try to escape, they decided to push even further in, hoping to slip by any large numbers of foes occupied by the larger attack forces.

They succeeded, but not without causalities. By the time they had discovered the path to the throne room of the Shadowlord only six of them remained. Inside the crypt like throne room the found the resurrected Shadowlord and did battle with him. The triumphant warriors managed to kill the Shadowlord with the help of the Dark Knight Zeid and Lion, a pirate's daughter. They all escaped as the castle bailey was consumed in demonic flames.

The six warriors that stopped the second coming of the Shadowlord became known as the Six Champions of Vana'diel, heralded as the bearers of the original heroes strength that fought along side Volker 20 years prior.

Despite the Shadowlord's death to this day the Beastmen still fight against the nations of Vana'diel and the Demons of Xarcabard still wander the icy plains…

CHAPTER ONE: A Mission

Four months later…

"Whataru you doing?" someone muttered and poked.

Alain looked down at Nokum-Akkum and then back at the long mirror before him. He wore a blue Bastokan Aketon that had been freshly washed and pressed by his Moggle. It had no creases and looked perfect. His short brown hair was a little out of place, but he soon sorted that.

Another poke into the side of his ankle made him grumble as he looked back down at his friend, who looked up at him and smiled innocently. He only wore slops and some thin boots on the rest of his body, so the Tarutaru's stabbing pokes hurt quite a bit. Nokum-Akkum repeated his question impatiently and asked why he had just been starring into the mirror.

Alain did not reply at first. Had he been starring at himself for a while? His mind had wandered. It had already been four months since he, Nokum-Akkum, and the rest of their companions did battle with the ferocious Shadowlord yet he still could not help losing himself in a dream when thinking about it. There were blanks, faded images, things that did not add up. It had been bothering him ever since that day. Why could he not remember what happened after the Shadowlord was killed? If only Zeid had not gone back into hiding and Lion back to her hidden pirate town.

"If you don'taru answer soon I'm going to bite you!"

"Alright, alright, sorry!" he said at last. "I was just, thinking."

Nokum-Akkum's eyes narrowed, "I know you're a Hume, but do you really need to spend that long thinking about complicated things like buttoning up an aketon? Betaru you wish you were as smartaru as me!"

Ignoring the Tarutaru's boasts, he looked back in the mirror at the thin Hume looking back. He had not trained in a while and it showed. He looked tired as well. He was missing far too much sleep.

His short friend toddled off in the direction of the front door to the mansion. Questioning where he was going, Nokum-Akkum said that he was going on ahead as he was bored of waiting, but Alain quickly reminded him that one of the Mythril Musketeers was being sent to escort them.

The messy blond haired Tarutaru kicked at the floor and swung the door closed. Returning to the seating area directly across the room on the opposite side, he picked up a tiny one handed axe from a table and began tossing it into the air and catching it in one hand out of sheer boredom.

From where he stood, Alain had a good view of the entire bottom floor to the large house. It had been given as a reward to all of them by the city of Bastok and was meant for them all to stay in, but now only three of them did. It was large enough to fit at least twelve people and even had a Chocobo Stable around the back. It had three floors, more bedrooms than he had ever bothered to count, a kitchen, a cellar, an armoury, and a huge storeroom. The floor was largely open, save for the seating area where Nokum-Akkum sat with a fire on the wall nearby, a red and yellow carpet with a horrible pattern on it, and some bookshelves on the far side.

Despite the house being so big they had managed to remain out of the public's eye for a long time and had drawn no attention to themselves. There were many big houses in the residential areas of the city and theirs was no different to those owned by rich merchants, large families, and high society types. There were rumours that some of the Six Champions still lived in the city, but as long as they just remained rumours Alain was fine with that.

"Woops!"

"Why whoops?" he called back to Nokum-Akkum, noticing that the axe was no longer being thrown up and down in the air.

"Ummm….It's okay if my aketon has a little cutaru, isn'taru?"

He sighed.

"Why do I have to wear a Bastoken one anyway? I'm a Windustrian and proud of it!"

The answer was already known to the Tarutaru, as Alain had answered it many times before, but he enjoyed moaning about it whenever he had to wear the blue coat bearing the flag of Bastok on its extended shoulder fabric.

Nokum-Akkum began lamenting out loud over 'his dear sweet Windurstrian aketon' that had met a fiery end during an excursion into Gusgen Mines. It had taught the cocky Tarutaru not to fight the Bomb monsters within the haunted mines in flammable clothing for fun.

For all extents and purposes, President Karst enjoyed the notion that the Six Champions were all soldiers of Bastok. Really, they had all just been adventurers who joined in the war effort from three main nations of Vana'diel. Only he and one other had actually been born in Bastok, but he had never bothered to try and point that out to the President. It made for some entertaining political sparring between nations whenever the subject came up of who was in command of the Six Champions.

None of that really mattered anymore since they had become separated, but they were still called for meetings with the President from time to time. Sometimes it would be because the Mythril Musketeers needed a helping hand with some mission or a townsperson had a task that needed extra support.

Something was different this time, though. An official letter written and signed from the desk of the President (which was as close as any person could get to actually receiving something from his hands) was sent to them stating that they had to see him as soon as possible. An escort was being sent, which was also very odd, but that might have just been to oversee things and to make sure they would show up when instructed in the letter. President Karst demanded punctuality and detested lateness.

"Master!" his Moggle called as it floated out from the direction of the kitchen. "Today I am fetching some groceries. We are quite low in supply of a few things, so I'll be off, kupo! Is Miss Catherine going to be returning today? I need to know how much food to get!"

"She won't be back from Selbina for a day or so more, I think," Alain replied. "Just get the usual amount - Nokum-Akkum can eat her share instead of picking at the leftovers like usual."

The Tarutaru's head abruptly popped up from behind the seat.

"Are you saying I'm a fatty-watty!"

The Moggle laughed happily to itself and floated towards out the front door after Alain opened it for it. As he was closing it, he heard the Moggle greet someone and looked out to see who it was. He was surprised to see a young Hume dressed in dark red chequered armour with chain mail leggings and sturdy boots. He smiled nervously and rubbed the back of his head as he entered the house.

The Hume was Naji, one of the three Mythril Musketeers highest ranking members. He was the youngest of the three and the most inexperienced, but was still a skilled fighter in battle. Naji was usually found meeting and greeting people outside the President's office building in the Metalworks acting as a liaison to adventurers, traders, and foreign diplomats. Despite being such a high ranking soldier he often ended up doing the kind of jobs expected of a doorman or office worker. Alain had never understood why, but the bullying he received from one of the other highest ranked member, Ayame, was probably to blame and he doubted that many of his peers serving under him treated him with as much respect as they should.

Taking a seat around the large fireplace, Naji greeted Nokum-Akkum and saluted. Neither of them held any sort of rank in the Bastokan military, but because of their titles as two of the Six Champions those that knew their identity often treated them like royalty. Alain closed the door to the mansion and took a seat on the opposite side of the young captain.

"Are you ready to leave?" Naji asked. "The meeting with President Karst is scheduled to begin in six minutes promptly. There is a couple of musketeers waiting outside to walk with you, but I will need to go on ahead as something has come up – seems like some ambassador that was visiting from San d'Oria has gone and gotten himself lost in Oldton Movalpolos. It's a real mess."

The Movalpolos area, home to Goblins, Moblins, and Bugbears had only recently been unearthed. For the most part they posed no threat, they seemed to have been away from sunlight for so long that it now burned their flesh if they were exposed to it and the ones that had dwelled even further inside were required to wear breathing receptacles if they ventured near the exposed areas. Those that first ventured into the new areas struck up a dialect (of sorts) and managed to determine two distinct areas; Newton and Oldon Movalpolos.

During the first Crystal War the Quadev had used mine shafts to infiltrate into Bastok to strike at the heart of the nation. It was thought that they had used the Palborough Mines to infiltrate the city, but with the recent discover of Movalpolos very close to Port Bastok's entrance it suggested a far more cunning strategy. Statisticians had begun to theorise that the Quadev may have bribed the Beastman within the newly discovered caves to travel through them and attack from two directions simultaneously before resealing the caves to hide them once more. The entrances to the underground city of the Moblins had been rediscovered twenty years later by a group of miners digging for new claims.

"Oldton? He can't be in that much danger; the Moblins and Goblins only get really aggressive if visitors go too far into their home and enter Newton and I'm sure he's smart enough to avoid the Bugbears. Is that why President Karst asked to see us, to help the musketeers find him?"

Naji shook his head, "We're handling it with some help of adventurers that go in there to do some mining regularly. We need to find him fast before he wanders into Newton and get his head chopped off! We really don't need something like this souring our situation with San d'Oria any further. Oh, and I have no idea what it is that President Karst wants to see you about, but I do know that it's something top secret. Even Ayama and Iron Eater don't know what it's about and it's annoying them to no end!"

Alain's interest had been sparked. Something so top secret that the three top Mythril Musketeers were being kept in the dark? It had to be something big and had to be something to do with what was happening around all of Vana'diel as there was no end to strange goings on since the end of the second Crystal War. Animals were still acting savagely in areas, Beastmen still walked around freely, and the Demons of the northlands still existed. It was unheard of and very disturbing. They all acted as if they were still under the influence of the Shadowlord, but that was impossible.

Being reminded of the time before their meeting, Alain looked himself up and down in the mirror once more before calling to his Tarutaru companion and leaving the mansion with Naji. They parted ways outside and the young musketeer vanished towards the markets area to continue his mission to find the lost ambassador. Two Hume glad in steel armour waited (rather impatiently) nearby and encouraged them to walk with haste through the residential area directly opposite the markets to the Metalworks.

President Karst's office was a large white oval building in one of the highest points of the city. The only way to get to it was through the Metalworks which made it quite safe and secure. His actual home was not part of the building and its location was kept hidden from nearly everyone. As well as his offices the open air upper floor of the Metalworks was also home to the consulates for ambassadors from San d'Oria, Windurst, and Jeuno. There was always at least one representative present in each consulate to maintain communication between all the nations and to assist its citizens should something happen while they are visiting a foreign place.

The Metalworks always smelt like oil and gunpowder. There were machines at work all over the place and the air was far from clean. The black smiths would come and carry with heavy materials on their backs and there was always smoke coming from Chief Engineer Cid's laboratory. In the middle of a large open area after the main entrance where two huge lifts rose up and down in time with each other they found only an old Hume standing silently watching the steam coming from the black smith guild. He paid no heed to them or any of the large Galka passing by.

They waited patiently for a pulley drawn semiautomatic lift to lower and all walked on before pulling a switch on its inside that activated the system. The lift would always jerk up with quite a lot of force at first as the pulley and straps all began to turn and Alain hated that.

Where Naji usually stood at the base of the oval building dealing with anyone wanting to enter was a substitute; a well dressed female Hume with a clipboard and papers was busy scribbling something down. She seemed quite flustered and at first did not notice either them or the musketeers that had escorted them.

"How does Naji keep track of all this and watch the door? It's mad; I can't…Oh, hello there. Oh, oh! You're the…yes; I was told I can't talk about that in the open. Your meeting is meant to start now, go ahead and get clearance from Iron Eater," the flustered woman said and bowed as they past before promptly getting back on with paperwork in the middle of an open street in front of Karst's office.

Inside were three doors after a rounded front room. The door in the direct centre was guarded by a large black bearded Galka glad in mythril armour. This was Iron Eater, the strongest of the Mythril Musketeers and President Karst's bodyguard. No one was allowed to see the President without his clearance. The proud Galka shooed off the Humes that had escorted them and they promptly left.

"Alain, Nokum-Akkum, good to see you," he said in a low voice.

Nokum-Akkum waddled in front of the Galka and pulled back with pretend shock, "I can'taru see your face! Lose some weight so I can see what you look like for once!"

The steely gaze of the musketeer made the bright eyed grin vanish from the Tarutaru's face. Without another word he stepped to one side and told them to hurry up before they ended up being late. Alain walked in front and opened the door into the office.

Inside, he almost walked straight into someone heading for the door. It was a young girl dressed in a dark pink and black fabric skirt with a long yellow scarf wrapped around her neck that dangled down past her lengthy brown hair. He eyes met with his blue ones and she smiled before passing by him and his companion. Nokum-Akkum turned and watched her go with a big smile on his face.

"Thataru is whataru I like about foreign countries! Tall women and skirts, did you see-

A deliberately firm and attention grabbing cough made them both look forwards.

"Excuse my daughter," President Karst said, "I had a meeting with Cornelia before yours. Come in and sit down."

So that was his daughter? Alain had never met her before, but he had heard stories. She was quite rebellious, more so than people of her age normally were. There were rumours that she often argued with her father despite his position and disagreed with some of his methods and policies. It was of no surprise that she was not happy with her father if he called their time together a meeting. That did not seem right to him.

They took up seats opposite the President at his desk and were quickly tossed a collection of papers. Alain looked over a few and gave the others to Nokum-Akkum. They seemed to be reconnaissance reports detailing enemy movements around the northlands over the time since the end of the second Crystal War. Xarcabard and the passage to it through Ranguemont Pass were considered San d'Oria's territories, so sending military units into them to spy on the monsters broke treaty rules between the two nations, which the President surely knew. Alain shared his worry about this, but Karst's old face stayed as gruff as ever.

"I did not send my musketeers; they have their hands full dealing with the repercussions of the war. I hired some adventurers to go there and bring back some information. As you can see; the reports show a huge increase in the number of monsters inhabiting Xarcabard with steady increases in increments of about two weeks. It is now so dangerous there due to the number of monsters that the adventurers refuse to continue spying on it for me! Jeuno has sent word to us and all the other nations that the use of Teleport-Vahzl magic is now outlawed."

The ancient and magical crystal deep inside Xarcabard that White Mages used to connect part of their spirit to that allowed them to transport themselves and others who had a shard of it to it from anywhere in the world had been a key holding point during the war. While the main attack force marched through Ranguemont Pass select groups of specialist soldiers and adventurers teleported straight in behind the front lines to do damage and escape. The crystal was in destructible, so the monsters could never remove that entrance, but if the Grand Duchy of Jeuno had issued orders stating that use of magic to get there was outlawed, it had to be for a good reason.

"What was the reason given for the outlawing of the magic?" Alain asked.

"They left the details out, leaving it to each nation to think up its own excuse to tell its people. Needless to say; whatever fake reason Jeuno might tell its own people to keep the general public calm, the real reason is the danger posed by so many monsters. They have no doubt set up ambushes around the crystal ready to attack anyone that appears there. They have learned from the mistakes they made during the war."

He looked at the reports again. The number of Demons sighted by the adventurers that had compiled the report was huge. It did not make sense; thousands of the creatures had been slain during the war and it was thought that only a few hundred were left as the battle ended. Like at the end of the first Crystal War it was presumed that the Demons would vanish with the Shadowlord's death, but they did not. If the reports were to be believed; not only had the Demons that survived the war still lived, but they were steadily increasing in numbers. He became distracted as the door to the President's office was opened.

"You're late, Cid," Karst muttered angrily.

With a wave of his hand the Chief Engineer laughed heartily, "Always so punctual, President Karst! I was late for good reasons this time, work is progressing nicely." He then addressed Alain and Nokum-Akkum, "And you are two of the Six Champions? I remember you when you were just a novice Warrior, boy! Gone up in the world in only a few years, haven't you?"

Thinking back, it had been many years since he had first met with Cid. He was asked to run an errand for the engineer when he was only sixteen. He had barely started his training as a Warrior back then and was willing to do any job to gain favour. The mission he had been given was to bring a crystal within close proximity to one of the spires dotted about Vana'diel and gauge the reaction it had. The crystal he brought was tainted blacker than any Dark Crystal he had ever seen when he let it touch the crystal in Konschtat Highlands. It was as if all the life had been sucked from it. He never heard anything else about it since then, but had heard that Cid was placed in charge of a continuing investigation of why the crystal was drained and what exactly happened.

A lot had changed since then though, even his profession, and he was impressed someone like Cid still remembered him. Back then he was just an everyday person in a crowd of people in the same position.

"Now we can get down to business," Karst said. "The reports I let you see show a steady increase in the Demon's numbers and I am worried this may lead to an attack. Obviously they will met with San d'Oria first, but I believe we must assess this situation now and act pre-emptively to stop it. San d'Oria will not listen to any warnings anyway, so we must gather our own intelligence, present it to Archduke Kam'lanaut and act accordingly. With that in mind; I require you and the rest of the champions to carry out a mission of utmost importance."

Alain and Nokum-Akkum looked at one another.

"Sir, we don't know where the other champions are… there are only three of us here in Bastok. Also, San d'Oria would no doubt be aware of the troubles in the northlands as well and I doubt they would let us pass through to carry out our own investigations if things are as bad as these reports suggest."

The President sighed with obvious impatience, which annoyed him greatly. Karst went onto explain that he was well aware that three of the Six Champions were no longer living in Bastok and that the first part of the mission was to find them as soon as possible.

Easier said than done, Alain thought to himself.

The second part of the mission was simple enough (in Karst's words); infiltrate into Xarcabard and assess the situation. After pressing for more information on what exactly assessing the situation meant, the President stated that they were to go back to the throne room of Castle Zvhal to see if there was anything left alive.

"You think the Shadowlord is still alive!" Nokum-Akkum exclaimed.

"The Demons are born from the Shadowlord; they exist as long as he does. The Demons of Xarcabard still wander and they are growing in numbers. Not that I am implying you failed in your original attempt to slay the monster, but something is obviously not right. Therefore I ask that you return to the castle and ascertain what happened."

Blurred images of the final battle flashed before his eyes. He remembered the swinging of swords, the explosions of magic, the black blade of the monster smashing into the floor. There was white light and then nothing. Who had dealt the death blow to the Shadowlord? Why could he not remember as something as important as that? Was anyone injured? He played out the same memories in his head again and they stopped just as abruptly. There was to much detail missing, to many blanks, there was something very wrong.

"How do you expect us to get into Xarcabard without alerting San d'Oria to our movements? They guard the entrances to the pass heavily and probably have extra troops there now if they know about the Demon's increasing numbers."

Cid laughed gruffly and explained that he was the one who was going to get them into Xarcabard unnoticed by both monster and Elvaan. Alain assumed Cid meant something related to his speciality (machines) and not using the teleportation magic that had been outlawed by Jeuno due to the crisis. Nokum-Akkum impatiently asked for an explanation.

"We're going to fly you in!" Cid cried with a sly smile.

Airships were Cid's children. He built the first used in the Crystal War of twenty years ago using crystal engine technology provided by the Archduke. Since then Jeuno had been placed in control of the fleet that grew from his original designs to stop any animosity caused from Bastok being in control of the skies. It was against the treaty signed under the watch of Jeuno after the war for any nation to build, own, or operate an airship without their permission. Most airships still in commission were used to ferry passengers from nation to nation and very few remained armed. Cid was still allowed to research and work on advancements in airship technology, but was never allowed to create a whole ship.

"…But that's against the…"

"We are well aware of the laws," Karst interrupted. "This is no time to be bogged down with politics and arguments with our neighbouring nations. Cid has been working on a new prototype of airship for some time and you will use it to travel discreetly into Xarcabard to carry out your mission."

"Nobody knows about it – not even the Mythril Musketeers, so we won't get in any trouble," Cid insisted. "I had adventurers fish up the specialist parts I needed and didn't let on why I wanted them. They were all too happy to do me a favour without questions asked."

They were taking a lot of risks. Breeching the laws agreed upon by all nations could turn all of them against Bastok. But if the danger posed in Xarcabard was so great to force President Karst to take this harsh action then it had to be the only choice he saw viable. Trying to go through the legal channels could take months, longer if Windurst or San d'Oria opposed the idea altogether. With the risk of ambushes if they were to ignore the outlaw of teleportation magic and went out there that way the only other way was by air.

"What do you think, Alain?" Nokum-Akkum asked.

He did not reply.

"The city of Bastok is asking for your assistance once more, champions of the second Crystal War. Dark Knight Alain, Warrior Nokum-Akkum, will you accept this mission?"

Alain sighed, "When do we leave?"

A slight smile appeared under Karst's black beard as he stood up from his desk and ordered that they go and prepare their belongings for the trip. Cid explained that the airship was not quite complete, but would definitely be ready to fly within thirty six hours. That worked out well, since Catherine would hopefully be back from Selbina by then and it gave them some time to try and work out where the other three champions were now.

They left the President's office with Cid close behind them, keen to head back home and prepare for what lay ahead.

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