Hatred, pain, and grief; that was all that he felt as he gazed upon the suspended head of the elder primal. He remembered the moment Bahamut broke out of its confinements. He remembered the smell of blood and burnt flesh as he and other alliance soldiers fled the fields of Carteneau. He remembered the pure hopelessness he felt upon returning home only to learn everything he cherished was burned to ash.
All he felt now was rage, a rage that the same primal felt as it burned the lands he loved. He narrowed his eyes and bared his teeth.
“You took everything from me, now I will destroy all that remains of you. I swear to it.” he said with a hiss.
Your time is not yet over. For she who wears this dress shall feel renewed from the ashes of obscurity. May you rise anew with the Feathered Dress of Rebirth, modeled after the great bird known as the Phoenix, whose immortality breathes through the magicked fabrics and feathers of this garment.
The majority of this beautiful work of art is woven in Thavnairian cotton, enhanced by fire-aspected aether to keep its wearer cool in hotter climes, and regulates their own body heat in cooler times (Part of the feather “cape” has been removed to show off the back of the dress).
Feel the very essence of the legendary bird flowing through you as this marvel of haute couture glows proudly from the downy feather trim. Due to the versatility of the dress, it is available in four colors aside from the standard blue; silver, golden, and red-orange.
Should you ever feel your spark fading into the darkness, don the Feathered Dress of Rebirth, and reemerge as the shining symbol of rebirth in the realm of high fashion.
“See? I told you sisters that Phoenix Down weren’t useless!” -Sesena Sena, Aldenard Branch Head Secretary
"Everything looks clear," Carmen said as she appeared out of thin air in front of everyone. The Warriors of Light were gathered behind a pile of boulders within site of Castrum Occidens. "It's the 2nd Cohort an' they don' suspect a thing. The most advanced thing in there are a couple o' vangaurds [nts: spelling?] an' I can' see any high ranked officers around." She nodded to Eyrikoel. "If we're goin' to go, we should go now."
"Alright," said Eyrikeol as he rolled his shoulders. He looked at Alisaie. "Whatever you do, do not leave our backline," he told her. "We're going to be moving fast and I don't know how you'll react in a live combat situation."
"I-" Alisaie began.
Eyrikoel overrode her. "Is the layout what we thought it was?"
"Yep." Carmen rolled out a hastily drawn map. "The main gate's at the end of a corridor that goes on for a fair bit and then the first left'll take us to the door to the shard." She pointed to the main intersection of the castrum. "There's a few vangaurds here and some more here." She tapped the area outside the shard. "Everything else is just regular infantry; shouldn' cause us too many problems."
"We each take a vangaurd?" Eyrikoel asked Alex and Avila, his fellow frontliners.
"My shield has an easier time dealing with infantry," huffed Avila. "But I can hold the door that leads to the shard with Hallowed Ground."
Alex shrugged. "I can take multiple vangaurds if I have to; my magics don't care what they hit."
"I'll take the first infantry wave then," said Eyrikoel. "Avila can take the second while me and Alex take care of the vangaurds." They all nodded in agreement. Eyrikoel looked at the rest of the Warriors of Light. "I'm assuming we're splitting up like usual?"
"It works for me," said Osric. The rest of the Warriors of Light agreed with him. Their current party set-ups [nts: find less gamey way to put this!] were working just fine.
"Whose party would I be considered to be in?" Erin spoke up. She wasn't considered to be in any party on a regular basis.
"Ours," said Kukunji. "Eos can heal you just fine. I just have to manually heal Eyrikoel a tad more from time to time." Erin nodded at him in confirmation.
"Anything else?" Eyrikoel asked. Everyone shook their heads. "Let's go then," he said and slowly edged around the bolder pile.
Finally! Kharagal thought as she got up from where she was sitting. It was just like planning raids against other tribes was back home. Sitting around while all the planning happened could get nerve-wracking, but it was very important. Fortunately, listening to Eyrikoel plan out raids was never a waste of time. He was good at giving everyone an idea about what everyone else's rolls were. It made it a lot easier to decide what to do when something did not go to plan.
There was a roar and a screech of metal against metal in the familiar sound of Eyrikoel's Steel Cyclone on the other side of the bolder pile. That was the queue for everyone else to go. Kharagal ran out from behind the bolder to see Izuna tackle a spearmen as J'attano rained down aetherial arrows from above. Avlia ran for the main entrance to the castrum and positioned herself to take down whatever came through it. Kharagal cast Tri-bind a few times and wished yet again that their was a more efficient way to cast the spell.
A heavy clang signaled the main gate to the castrum was opening. "Go!" shouted Carmen though their linkshell. Kharagal cast one last Tri-bind at the legionnaires outside the castrum then ran for the gate. Today the Warriors' goal wasn't killing the enemy but rushing through their fortress before they could exhaust themselves too badly. It only mattered that the Warriors stopped the imperials from following them.
At the gate, Avila was pushing the imperials back into their own castrum. Himalgeim was guarding the gate controls, her Jumps giving her more range then most meele fighters had, and Nhagi'a had successfully frozen several legionnaires in place. Rivienne was in the gateway casting Cure spells on Avila as fast as she could. The minute the last warrior made it into the castrum, Nhagi'a put the focus of his staff to the control panel and sent a Thunder spell right through the controls. The gate slammed shut behind them; controls sparking.
But there was no time to rest. Avila was still dealing with the legionnaires and behind that were the vangaurds. Erin pulled up her gun and aimed at the closest of the vangaurds. Her aim was good; the shot landed in the gears that were responsible for the vangaurds movement and the vangaurd toppled.
Now with nothing at their backs but the castrum gate, the Warriors of Light pushed through the castrum. Kharagal saw Alex lob a dark bolt of magic at the vangaurd to get all of its attention on himself. He followed that up with a swift uppercut with his huge two-handed sword. Carmen scrambled up the vangaurd and landed a hit somewhere on it that locked up its arms. Have fun! Kharagal mentally told Ifrit-Egi and she flicked the mental switch that was the Enkidle spell. Ifrit-Egi did a smaller version of Ifrit's Hellfire and the Vangaurd began melting because of the heat.
By then, Avila had pushed up to the intersection. Alisaie, as it turned out, had decided to stay with Avila's group and was indeed managing to keep up with them. "Turn!" shouted Avlia though the linkshell. As she did so, she flanked the group of legionnaires to the left and called up the Rage of Halone to force them away from the route the Warriors wanted to take. The other Warriors used the space she had created to maneuver themselves towards the part of the castrum that held the shard of Dalamud. Now they sandwiched between the legionnaires Avlia was holding off and last few vanguards that guarded the shard.
Eyrikeol picked up one of the vanguards and the last few legionnaires Avila hadn't managed to get a hold of while Alex picked up the last two vanguards. Carmen rushed through the gap they had created and got to work on the controls for the door that led into Dalamud. Meanwhile, everyone else kept the legion busy.
They were starting to topple the second vanguard when the door to the fragment groaned open. "Go!" Carmen shouted through the linkshell and dove through the door. Kharagal and the rest of the damage dealers ran for the door first. The front line fighters made a wedge with the door to their backs to give the healers time to get through it. Once the healers were through, Avila cast Hallowed Ground. While her sword and shield lit up with aether, Eyrikoel and Alex dove through the door behind her. The gunblasts from the last vangaurd echoed behind them.
"Close it!" Avlia shouted. Carmen slammed on the control panel and the door started slowly closing. Avila scooted under the door just in time, still glowing with the aether that had let her bear the brunt attacks that would kill a normal frontliner. Like he had at the castrum gate, Nhagi'a channeled a Thunder spell through the control system's circuits. It was only then that everyone finally caught their breath.
While Kukunji, Rivienne and Osric took stock of everyone's minor injuries, Alisaie and the rest of them now looked around at where they now were. It was a single room covered in cables and half of the floor did not look like the other half. The ceiling slopped downwards towards the wall on one side. "I do not suppose any of you know what type of machinery this is?" Alisaie said.
It looks like the fright elevator," said Izuna. He chuckled. "Like the one we fought van Baelsaur on."
Himalgeim groaned. "We better not have to fight on this one while it's moving. Timing jumps like that is annoying."
"Well," said Alisaie, "let us hope that whatever Nhagi'a did to the door controls did not mess up these ones." Nhagi'a rolled his eyes at that.
Kharagal walked over to the elevator controls which were steadily blinking. "They look fine to me," she said and held her hand up to the control panel. The touch screen blinked on, revealing that aside from the floor the Warriors of Light were currently on, there was only one other floor named the Exploratory Site. "There's only one way to go. Should I?" She looked over at Eyrikeol who was being looked at by Kukunji.
"How far down is it?" Eyrikoel asked.
"Around 700 fulms," said Kharagal. "It looks like it'll take us a while to get down there."
"Might as well do it," said Kukunji. "We're about done here, so it should not effect things too much even if something were to happen."
"Alright then." Kharagal touched the lower floor on the screen and the freight elevator began to descend with a groan. As it continued downwards, Kharagal wondered what they would find down under La Nosca in the aether.
Dont know if Tumblr is a good place to ask for this. But, FFXIV I'm on Gilgamesh, locking to beat Binding Coil (for the story of corse). The only thing I can offer in return is help you run something. But yeah, I wanna get the story of Binding Coil and I guess it's not in any of the Duty Roulette List and nobody queues up for it any more.
