FFXIII: ROB's Wheel c85

‘Who the hell is this guy!?’ 

Snow Villiers is a tall blonde man who is the leader of a small group of ‘trouble makers’, or as they call themselves, NORA. They are a pack of youths who grew up on the outskirts of Bodhum.

They were the ones who organised the Bodhum residences to raise against PSICOM and their Leaders of Sanctum.

The blonde has an even greater goal: to find Serah, his Fiance.

But for now, his mind was elsewhere as this white-armoured individual just swooped down and killed that Behemoth, and now he was thinking of fighting all those PSICOM by himself.

“Snow, while they are distracted, we should get better positions!” Snow’s right-hand man, a tall, dark-skinned guy named Gadot, suggests.

“Yeah.”

Snow nodded seriously before dashing forward and hiding behind the crates before them. They had been using them as cover, and Behemoth would have destroyed it.

But now, they can use it to cover and fortify their positions.

Not that it was important as this guy vanished, and then screams from PSICOM soldiers followed after. The guy just butchered the whole advanced squad and rushed further into the parts of the bridge that were under PSICOM's control.

“W-What the hell! I couldn’t even see him move!” People behind Snow commented as they were awed and terrified of what they saw!

“No doubt this is the l’Cie the PSICOM were looking for!”

“Wasn’t on the news some pink-haired girl? This one looks like a man.”

Snow clenched his fist when he heard that.

‘It was Serah, I know! But there are more of them?’ 

For a second, he wondered, but then he brushed it aside as he needed to focus on getting to Serah. As long as this guy doesn’t attack the people of Bodhum, he doesn’t care.

“Focus on fighting these guys! As long as he doesn’t fight us, we should help him deal with PSICOM!”

Snow loudly said to the rag-tag of a group of civilians with rifles behind him.

A loud ‘yeah’ erupted from them. So what if this guy is the boogeyman? They were branded as them, too!

Not that they were needed as streaks of white blew up airships, fighters and assault mechs PSICOM was bringing over.

By the looks of it, they were bringing a lot of military assets, but this guy is just punching through them like a knife through tissue paper!

~~~

‘Hmm…’ 

Alex tried different ways to stimulate his virus powers, as more of these black soldiers succumbed to the virus and turned into purple crystals before shattering into crystal dust.

The Virus Progenitor was testing out more of this unique power he had acquired.

Sadly, it's not going anywhere. It appears he needs to change something fundamentally.

After exterminating the entire crew of the airship, he rushed out from the hole he had created. Before he left, he destroyed the airship and then flew away.

He quickly realised that there were no more airships in the vicinity, only some of them at the large gates at the ceiling.

‘Oh, that’s where the Vestige should be arriving.’

The Host of the White Dragon Emperor looked at the ceiling, then turned around and looked at the bridges. He quickly found three pinkettes rushing towards that area.

‘Well, they dealt with the train.’

His gaze went to the train. It was semi-encased in purple crystals.

‘Not bad.’

Seeing that the situation was under control, he descended to where the girls were.

“I am back.” With a burst of white light, he dropped on next to them.

“Good. We can focus on getting to where you have dealt with most of the troops.” Lightning was quite pleased that the PSICOM air forces were mostly gone. 

Thanks to that, they can take their time and walk to the place where the Vestige should be delivered for destruction.

“I assume we will wait for that building to be brought over?” Julis asked the ex-soldier girl.

“It's not a building. That thing is a Fal’Cie. They are gods' creations, or at least that is what they say. I am on the fence about them; I have no proof that they are creations of Pulse, Lindzei, or Etro.

They are the ones who created Cocoon, where people live. Or at least the Fal’Cie created by Lindzei, as the one you will see is a creation of Pulse, the God who created the lower world of Gran Pulse.

I don’t know the details, but the two Gods don’t like each other, so they wage war by proxy.”

“I see… so these Fal’Cie are like envoys of gods, but instead of being some sort of creatures, they are building like?” Julis spoke in a pondering tone as she tried to understand the world she was in.

“Something like that. I am not an expert in this. My sister knows this stuff better than I do.” Lightning didn’t deny what Julis said. It could have sounded like the Fal’Cie were envoys of the gods.

Alex didn’t comment while walking next to them, as he knew the truth about the godling games. 

~~~

Minutes later, the ceiling doors opened, and the T-like-shaped building was brought over by two airships.

“Right, we will need to find a way to enter it.” Lightning looked at the incoming Fal’Cie.

“I will carry Inori and you while Julis will follow,” Alex said to the group.

The Pink Princess puffed her cheeks for a second as she crossed her arms when she heard that.

“Fine. I can fly, after all.” 

“Precisely.” 

With a burst of white, he was encased in his Scale Mail.

Lightning looked at him and then at the Vestige being lowered.

“Let’s get this over with.”

She said to him as she walked over to his side. Alex was grinning behind the helmet of the scale mail, as this is something all nerds want to do after meeting one of the game character's crushes.

The Virus Progenitor picked her up with one hand as the ex-soldier girl got comfortable in his hold. He then did the same with Inori and began to fly upwards towards the descending Vestige.

Julis followed them closely as she looked at the thing shaped like a building.

‘It’s bigger than I thought. The feeling it gives me… it's just creepy! A living building! It's like some sort of swarm mind…’

If what she thinks is true, then this whole world is a game for these gods.

‘Alex did mention godlings plotting something.’

The pinkette frowned as they arrived at a hallway. There were multiple entry points into this thing.

‘It looks like some sort of temple.’ 

As they landed on the ground, the pair dismissed their wings; in Alex's case, he dismissed his armour.

“C’mon, she should be at the top section. It's where that oaf left her!” Lightning motioned to move on.

“You…know…this feels like a trap,” Julis commented as she looked around.

Alex smiled upon hearing that. His girlfriend saw that smirk and immediately realised it was the case!

“And you just letting us get trapped!?” 

“Even if this is the case and Serah is being used as bait, what other option do I have?” Lightning grimaced as she realised that this could be the case.

This Fal’Cie is baiting them for some reason.

“...I suppose.” Julis deflated after realising that it was the truth.

After walking a bit, they arrived at a wide hall that looked alien in design. Ancient stone walls mixed with futuristic lights illuminated the whole hall, and bolts of lightning rushed through glass cylinders from the floor to the ceiling.

“It's like old technology mixed with new…” Julis commented as she had never seen anything like that before.

“People in Cocoon studied Fal’Cie for centuries to learn their secrets. It's where our technology comes from.” Lightning commented as she looked at her surroundings.

“But this is nothing like what I see from Cocoon’s Fal’Cie. This is definitely a Pulse Fal’Cie just from aesthetics.” 

She explained to the group of outsiders.

“...I can feel someone is watching us,” Inori said while looking around.

“...A presence? In walls?” The pinkette said with confusion evident in her voice.

“...It should be the Fal’Cie. It’s watching us.” Lightning stopped walking for a second before looking around.

At that moment, all the entrances sealed themselves with yellow barriers, and then crystallised bulking creatures were poured in, followed by mechanised feline-like creatures.

“PSICOM pets! And those… are Cei’th. They are the ones who failed their focus.” The ex-soldier girl pulled out her Void Weapon, ready to fight. 

“Girls deal with those mech cats while I will deal with Cei’th.” He dashed at the crystalline monsters with supernatural speed. His hair became a tint of purple, and a few strands of white hair appeared, too—a wilder disposition manifested around him. 

It was time to see if he could drain these Cie’th! Can he harness the crystal powers of the Final Fantasy universe?

Alex grabbed the first Cie’th. 

There was a reaction upon contact. The Virus Progenitor’s rhombus-shaped pupils widened as he saw images.

‘Memories.’ 

He quickly realised what had happened to these people—the PSICOM recon units. Fal’Cie gave them an impossible focus, which triggered the transformation.

‘In other words, it's impossible for humans to fight Fal’Cie. All the fights that happen in Final Fantasy XIII are nothing more than a sham!

I can’t believe I spend hours playing this…’

Albion was severely disappointed by all of this.

‘You have to play this for the story.’ Alex reasoned with his dragon with an amused tone.

‘Bah! You broke the story! I was playing for the world’s building and levelling the characters!’

‘Regardless, now I know that Fal’Cie can turn people into monsters in seconds. Resisting is pointless for normal people.’

‘Precisely, that is why I want to understand this power and see if I can control it for myself.’

The Virus Progenitor grinned as he felt it. He can sense via his crystal manipulation how the l’Cie brands work. They are mediums for magic. Similar to how Naruto’s cursed seal works. These brands gather magic from outside and then flow into their bodies.

These things are like mechanisms, too. Once a certain amount of time passes and enough magic is collected, the Fal’Cie or the god behind it can trigger a reaction and cause all the access mana to force a transformation or crystallisation of the person.

Truly a fascinating piece of magic!

Who would have thought that crystal manipulation could lead to a completely different branch of magic?

After grasping the idea, he tried to reverse the effects of Cie’th’s transformation. He made the mana leak from the body. Then he forced crystallisation to retreat to the brand before the transformation shattered, and what was revealed was a man in black armour collapsing before everyone’s eyes.

“...You undid it…” Lightning, who already dealt with the mech cats, looked at this with fascination. 

Does this mean he can undo what that Fal’Cie did? Could he potentially remove the brand from Serah?

“Yeah…”

Alex nodded as he needed to dodge an incoming swing from bulky Cie’th trying to surround him.

“However, his mind appears to be gone. The wild magic from the brand shattered it completely.” He commented after watching the twitching body. 

Julis, seeing this, looked intrigued as she dashed towards one and grabbed it by the back.

Her eyes widened for a second as he transformed into her Virus Eve form and saw similar stuff to Alex. Having been fascinated by magic since the very beginning of her second chance in life, she quickly understood the mechanics of these brands.

Sure enough, another Cie’th shattered, revealing a PSICOM recon soldier. 

“...Fascinating.” 

Julis mumbled under her breath, but then she needed to dodge an incoming attack from another Cie’th.

“I need more examples!” The girl quickly grabbed another and tried to understand the mechanics of this brand more.

Alex, who saw that she was stealing his Cie’th, quickly grabbed another.

Lightning, who was standing some distance away, could only watch this with disbelief.

‘These guys… don’t they know how serious this is?’.

The ex-soldier girl realised that these guys were treating this like some sort of study session!