Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Path of the Dragoon

A few hours had passed since the battle between Yazgash and Agnes. By now the group had already recovered from the their injuries. Cid now uses his spear as a means of support. He would need to return to Ravenghast to get a prosthesis but that would be for another time. Obviously he cannot continue to fight in his current state, but he could teach Yui the secrets of the Dragoon in order to help the girl with her quest.

Cid waits for Yui to wake up from her rest and once she does, he asks her to follow him into the Dome of Fontaine. The Dome covering the structure was already gone, destroyed in the previous wars that have come to this place. The place looked untouched for hundreds of year and the only creatures living inside it were small mammals.

Cid took Yui to a hall which used to be an altar that held the ceremonial Dragon's Blood. But not it was just a pile of ruin. Cid hopped around on one leg and nodded. "Yep this here is the place. You should kneel down it makes things easier." he said to Yui.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Path of the Dragoon


[Unconscious]
Yui's time spent unconscious was largely unpleasant, the entire situation that caused her defeat causing a wide array of negative thoughts to form in her mind. Her time spent resting felt like no rest at all, Ikas taking full advantage of the negative thoughts and droning on and on in an attempt to drive Yui to despair. 

"The way you keep getting beat up.." Ikas said with a chuckle, crossing her legs as she took a seat on seemingly nothing and continued "I wonder what body part you'll be missing when you wake up this time.."

Yui stood in the darkness that was her mind, leaning forward as she screamed at Ikas with all the strength she felt she could muster. "SHUT THE FUCK UP! All you do is sit here and laugh! What the hell do you even do!?" She yelled at Ikas, shaking with anger as a frown formed on her face and her featured wrinkled, apparent to the outside world.

In a smooth motion Ikas slid towards Yui in her seated position, closing the distance without appearing to move as she hovered a little higher to go face to face with Yui without standing. She smiled at Yui with a clever grin and leaned in close, bat-like wings stretching out from behind her as she screamed back at Yui. "OF COURSE I WANT YOU TO DESPAIR!" She set her hands in her lap and leaned back, collecting herself as she continued in a cold, calm tone.

"You need to learn that the world is cruel, and accept it." Ikas said as she sat up and reached forward, brushing a few strands of hair from Yui's face before continuing. "Like it or not, we share this body. Losing all of your bodyparts just means I'll have less to use when you finally bite it." She giggled and pressed an index finger to Yui's forehead, pressing against it ever so slightly and floating backwards as a result.

A spear formed in Yui's hand as she clenched her teeth and said with a mild growl "You'll be the one to bite it, for everything you've done.", spinning the spear around fancifully before resting it across her shoulders, against the back of her neck.

Ikas gasped and seemed shocked as she leaned forward, remaining seated as she simply snapped her fingers. The spear that Yui was holding became like liquid, forming into metal chains which shot into the darkness below her and forced her to her knees.

"What I've done? I don't seem to recall forcing you to stab that child.." Ikas laughed as she floated over to Yui once more, her smile turning into a frown as she placed her index finger against Yui's forehead. "You should think about it, little girl.." She said, digging her fingernail into Yui's head for a brief moment. "Sadly, I don't have the time to spell it out for you, ciao." She said with polite smile, tilting her head somewhat as she drew her finger back and then forced it against Yui's forehead roughly.

[Awake]
Yui could feel some sort of rush followed by pain, the pain suddenly intensifying as she jerked into a sitting position. She was sore practically all over as she finally woke up, her mouth tasting like dried blood as she forced herself to her feet.

Every little movement seemed to hurt her as she started to look around the area, though her time to scope things out was cut short by Cid's request. She was taken aback at the sight of Cid with only one leg, frowning as the thought that she probably could have prevented it crossed her mind.

She took it slow at first, picking up a little bit of speed as she adjusted to the various pains she was experiencing and kept close to Cid. The place was dusty but seemed to be well preserved, her eyes wandering as she followed Cid through the place. She was asked to kneel when they arrived at a pile of rubble, though she could guess from what little of it was remaining that it was at least not part of the wall, ceiling or floor.

Yui began to take a knee and simply fell onto both of them, her defeat weighing somewhat heavily on her as the weight of it seemed to force her down. She wasn't quite sure why she needed to kneel, but didn't really care either. She reached over and adjusted the straps that held her metal arm on, tightening them ever so slightly as she waited.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Path of the Dragoon

Cid slowly lifted his spear off the ground, using his tail to support is missing leg. Normally the ceremony required Dragon's Blood. But since the last Dragon died out thousands of years ago, the Dragoons have started using their own blood for the ritual. Because the older Dragoons have drank Dragon's Blood, their blood is considered to still harbor it. Cid takes his spear and cuts himself in the palm. He stained the tip of his spear with his blood and drew a circle around Yui.

"Uhh... I can't really remember what's next."Cid mumbled. Then he stabbed his spear on the ground just in front of Yui's face. "I forgot the exact words kid, but it goes something like this."

"Ahh Blood of the Dragoon... Mmmmee ahh mrrmm.... ???? (Inaudible words).... Here Drink this..."Cid let's the blood from the palm of his hands drip down into Yui's mouth. It was clear that Cid didn't remember the words, the reason why he wanted to do the ritual here was also because there was a written copy of the words in the wall of this hallway but the copy was already destroyed.

"The words aren't important anyway. At least that's what my master told me and look how I turned out." Cid said laughing.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Path of the Dragoon


Yui watched as Cid cut himself and drew a circle around her with his spear, a number of questions coming to mind all at once, though far too many for her to write on the little cards she kept on her.

She tried her best to make out what Cid was saying, but simply could not with her limited knowledge of the language. Though she felt that perhaps even knowing the language she would be unable to comprehend most of what he was saying, even more thoughts coming to mind as a drop of blood touched her lips.

Yui's first thought at Cid's request to drink his blood was that of a satanic ritual, a momentary feeling of fear taking hold as her mind raced with all sorts of awkward thoughts. She calmed down and opened her mouth hesitantly, to allow the blood to drip into it.

Cid had done nothing to show her he meant any harm, so she had no reason to assume the worst of him. Nothing in this world had seemed to work out the way that she would expect anyway, so why would this be any different?

The blood itself was on the cooler side, yet seemed to set her mouth on fire despite it's colder temperature. She ran her tongue along her lips for a moment to get the little bit of blood that dripped down while her mouth was still closed, sweating ever so slightly from the heat that seemed to stretch down her throat.

Yui found the feeling to be quite odd, since it didn't feel like a spice was generating the heat. There was something different about it that she simply couldn't comprehend, at least not yet.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Path of the Dragoon

"If you have fears and darkness in your heart, use them to give you courage and strength. Being a Dragoon isn't a pleasure, it's a responsibility. Everyone around you is now your responsibility, this world is your responsibility. Don't abuse your power, uphold justice, defend the weak." Cid preached to Yui as she was drinking his blood. "Now arise a Dragoon!" Cid said. Perhaps the one thing Cid remembers from the ritual words correctly. With that the ceremony has ended Cid pulled out his spear from the ground and used it again as a walking stick.
Path of the Dragoon quest completed

*Yui has unlocked BLOOD OF THE DRAGOON*
2000 xp awarded for quest completion

He was smiling, because he remembered Jenn whenever he saw Yui. She was like the daughter he never had and now he's got two. Their journey here is complete, but now they faced a really serious problem. With out a vessel to board out of this island, they are left to ponder here until they could find a way out. Cid thought about building a boat from the trees but was afraid it might not hold against the beast living in the Great Lake.

"Come on. Let's rejoin the others." Cid said to Yui before walking out of the ruined Dome of Fontaine. When Cid entered the Dome, Agnes was eating and now that he's done, the girl was still eating. She could consume their entire stock of rations, but Cid didn't want to aggravate the girl after what he saw her do. Instead he made his way towards his crew and said, "Start collecting wood. We're building a boat."

His men saluted him and right away carried out his command. It would take them some considerable amount of time to complete the boat, and there was no guarantee that they'd even make it out of the lake in one piece. But seeing Agnes gave Cid some hope, if she could do what she did to the twins with the monster of this lake then they just might have a chance at getting out of here. Cid wanted to befriend the girl so he walked up to her and asked her, "What's your name?"

A closer look at Agnes and Cid suddenly remembers seeing her face before. It was on a piece of paper sent out by the Imperials over a month ago. The hair of the girl in the paper was longer but there was no denying the similarities in her face and in her description.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Path of the Dragoon


She listened to Cid's words and gave a small smile, since she had already been doing most of the things he mentioned already. She seemed to be falling into some sort of hero archetype, like that of a tv series or cartoon. She considered for a moment her "responsibility" to this world, a world that had shown her mostly a harsh cruelty during her lengthy stay in it. She wondered if she had a responsibility to her own world as well, but brushed it all off as Cid simply grandstanding with his speech.

The heat she was feeling seemed to build up, growing more intense by the moment before rapidly fading and leaving her somewhat cold. She wasn't exactly sure what had happened as she stood up to follow Cid out of the dome, but she did feel less sore than she had when she woken up.

She followed Cid over to the crew and listened as he gave them their orders, pulling out her writing tools and offering her assistance to the crew whilst Cid went over to the girl they had rescued.

She'd follow him over once she realized that he had continued on without her, moving over to both him and the girl as he asked her name. She didn't even get a chance to see what the girl was capable of, given her defeat prevented her from doing much other than lying around on the ground.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine


Yui approached the girl and Cid without any hesitation, standing alongside the white-scaled male as the girl asked for their names. She had no feelings for or against the girl, or any inkling of fear due to the nature of her having not seen anything go down. But the crew seemed excessively hesitant to go near Agnes, causing Yui to be cautious and keep an eye on her.

She prepared a fresh piece of paper and wrote her name in both English and proper, the one side of the note reading "Yui 唯". She showed it to the girl and then realized after a few moments that she had written in the wrong language, flipping the piece of paper over and writing her name a third time in the appropriate language before showing it to Agnes once more.

Yui wasn't even sure why she wrote her name in English or with Kanji, since neither of them were typically understood in this world and her writing was sloppy in both due to time passed.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Lake Guardian

"I'm Cid! Cid Highwind at your service. This red head right here is Y-oo-wee. Those guys are my crew. And the airship you blew up was my Sierra. As much as it pains me to see such a tragedy befell my Sierra, I'd like to thank you for saving our lives. We were never a match for those two and if you hadn't done what you did, we'd all probably be dead." Cid said to Agnes with his most sincere appreciation.

"Now we have to get the heck out of here. I need a new ship and we all need a bath." Cid said liking the air with his sensitive reptilian tongue. Then he looked over at Agnes and added, "Except for you. Your scent is... oddly fragrant for some reason."

"My crew is already fixing us a boat, but here's the thing. The last time I was here I saw something in the lake. Something big. Not sure what it was but it hates it when people are in the water. So we might run into a bit of trouble. Do you think you could help us out with your magic? And maybe a bit of what you did earlier against the twin. You know when you grew horns and a tail. I've personally never seen anyone do that before. Sure I've seen Qins change into a beast but never a human into... something else. Whatever it is, we could sure use it against the lake monster because at my current state I'm in no condition to fight." Cid told Agnes.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Lake Guardian


Yui exhaled loudly through her nostrils at the idea of a creature in the lake, as if all the crap that had happened to her already wasn't enough. Her mind wandered as she brought up mental images of various fish and aquatic animals back on earth, her mind trying to associate some sort of image with the creature.

She smirked as the image of a giant goldfish appeared in her mind, causing her to shake her head somewhat. She couldn't laugh, of course, but the thought of dying to a giant goldfish after everything was quite amusing to her.

Yui flexed her metallic arm a couple of times to check if it was still in working order, extending each finger one by one before curling her hand into a fist. She was almost so distracted by her little self-diagnostic that she almost didn't realize that Ara was offering a handshake to both her and Cid, halting her testing of her metal arm and shaking with the opposite hand instead.

Whilst she had time to adjust to the new arm, strength control was a reoccurring problem for her. She didn't want to tear Ara's hand off via a handshake, after all.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Lake Guardian

The handshakes would have to wait. Suddenly one of the crew members came running out from the woods, from the beach, and back to the camp. He had a very concerned look on his face and said, "Captain! Come quick there's something you need to see!" then he ran back towards the beach. He seemed to have forgotten that Cid only had one leg, and it was a constant struggle for him to walk properly, much more run.

Cid grabbed onto Yui's shoulder and pulled himself up from his seat and said, "Come help me over there Yui." He then turned to Agnes and said, "You should come to Ara. This place isn't what it used to be 30 years ago." The camp wasn't far off from the beach, where the crew member saw the strange activity.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Lake Guardian


Yui shifted her balance to adjust for Cid using her to stand, stumbling slightly due to the fact that she was still adjusting her balance to take into account the weighty metal arm she now had.

But she didn't seem to mind at all, since she still felt relatively well off after what had transpired within the dome. 

Yui started walking towards the beach, taking additional time to ensure that Cid could keep up. She felt that he could get there easily if he wanted to jump it, but having a missing body part would probably cause him to botch the landing.

She didn't much like the idea of going to see what was going on, after the mentioning of a creature in the lake. However, it did pique her curiosity some.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Lake Guardian

When Cid and the others finally made it to the beach, they saw the event that made all his crew members stand still. A dark ominous cloud was looming over the lake's horizon. It was moving and was headed to their location. Cid didn't know what the dark cloud brought but it was massive enough to cause him to fear it. Cid knew that they couldn't stay here much longer. Building the stronger and sturdier wooden boats would bbe ideal as it would provide a safer passage through the lake, but it would require a considerable amount of time to complete and time was not on their side. Cid called his men back to the camp, and inside the Dome. There might be another way off this island but it would require a far greater sacrifice than labor.

The dark clouds were a spell being cast by an extremely powerful vampire lord. It acts as a screen which blocks sunlight, a fatal weapon against the vampires. The cloud brought with it a small army of vampires and one vampire lord. These were the same ones that attacked Ohglis a few days ago. They're retreating after being pushed back by the Alfierian forces that met them in Ohglis. The Dome of Fontaine is structurally still is a good place to use as a fortified base, the Vampire Lord knows that the place is abandoned and she seeks to utilize it and convert it into a Den where she will replenish and bolster her ranks. One power a Vampire Lord possesses is the ability to fly, but she wasn't using it to cross the lake, instead she brought a ship which carried her minions.

Once inside the Dome, Cid led the group into an massive empty, hangar-like balcony. In the past, Dragoons have rode on the backs of Dragons to travel from one place to the other with great speed. The only problem is that there are no more Dragons left in this time, the last one died thousands of years ago. But the Dragoon have evolved since then, they substituted Dragons with Cymas, winged-beasts that are not originally native to this continent, which is why the Dragoons brought them here and bred them to replace their Dragon mounts. Now they live unrestricted in this island. They problem is it took Dragoons years to take these creatures and Cid and his company didn't have that long.

There was another way off this island but the passage could also be their doom. There was a crypt built underneath this structure. The crypt is where all the Great Dragoons who've passed away are buried. In the crypt, there is rumored to be a passage to the river leading to the Frozen Bay, near Solus Island. The journey would take several days even weeks and the crew would not be able to see sunlight until they reach the exit. The original entrance was sealed off many years ago during the war, but there was a secondary entrance in the mount hangar, the room where they are now. Cid remembered being showed this passage by his master nearly 40 years ago. However, they never went through the door for the crypt is likely home to dark spirits.

Cid didn't know the exact path that will lead them to the exit, but from what his master told him, the layout was pretty simple and getting lost was the least thing to worry about inside the passage. Cid stood at the secondary entrance of the crypt and warned the others before deciding, "This path leads to the crypt which leads to an exit off this island. But the journey will take us days or maybe even weeks. There's no sunlight down there so we'll be in darkness for a very long time. There is also a high chance that dark spirits will be down there because of the absence of light, so be on your guard. Just stay in the light and stay close to one another. I'm not going to force you all to go through this, but that cloud will most likely mean death. This path also spells death but at least there's hope we might make it out of here through here. If you guys have nothing more to say, then let's go."

Cid takes his spear and breaks the lock on the doors with three hits of his weapon. Then he grabs the handles of the door and prepares to open it.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Lake Guardian




Yui adjusted the straps holding her metal arm on whilst assisting Cid to the beach, tightening it nearly to the point of being painful. She had a growing sense of dread that only got larger with each step, expecting to find some horrible giant crab or something along the lines.

Her experiences in the world thus far had been less than pleasant, so she was more than suspicious of everything. Her eyes continually darted around as they approached, spotting the large black cloud in the distance.

She brought her free hand up to provide a shield for her eyes from the sun, squinting somewhat as she tried to identify what the cloud was made of. She considered for a moment that it could be a thunder storm, but something didn't seem quite right with the cloud. It was moving far too fast for a storm cloud, she thought.

An image of the dranglings she had dealt with before flashed in her mind, her hand wandering to grip onto the metal arm as her mind replayed the events of her actual arm's departure from her body.

Yui didn't need much prompting for her to leave, helping Cid into the dome and to a large empty room that seemed similar to a hangar of sorts, or perhaps a really large stable. Her mind re-focused on the task at hand as Cid went over his little "do you want to do this" speech, nearly smacking herself in the face as she facepalmed at the mention of "dark spirits".

"What? Am I going to be fighting fucking ghosts now too?" She thought to herself, frowning as she tightened her grip on her spear. She really didn't much like the idea of dealing with so-called "spirits", since she figured she probably couldn't even touch them due to them not physically existing.

But what the hell, couldn't be any worse than the dark cloud of whatever that was heading their way, right?

Yui moved up to the door alongside Cid and grabbed one of the door handles, looking to him and giving a stern nod. She exhaled a heavy breath and tried to steel herself for what was to come, waiting to assist Cid in opening the door.

She couldn't afford to keep getting her ass handed to her, so she had to be ready this time.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Lake Guardian

None of the crew members made a remark. They trusted their captain and were ready to face danger with him. Yui helped Cid open the secondary door leading to the Dragoon crypt. As soon as the door opens a foul smelling gust of wind escapes from within. The pathway was dark and moist, indicating that water might have gotten inside the crypt. This wasn't a good sign, if the crypt is flooded then there is absolutely no way they'll be able to escape through here. No one has been here for thousands of years and so there was no telling what was waiting for them in the Crypt, and there was only one way to find out.

Air kept rushing out from the passage, Cid had a bad feeling about this but decided to go have a look anyway. He was the first one to step into the passage but as soon as he did, he jumped out and yelled for the gate to be closed. The crew members rushed to this side and all helped to shut the gates. They were able to close it just in the nick of time, as water suddenly gushed out from the seems of the gate. The Crypt was flooded, their escape route turned out to be a dead end. They will never be able to swim all the way from here to the river exit, it was time to decide: Face the dark cloud or swim across the lake.

Cid was sure of what would happen if they swam in the lake, but he was unsure of what the dark clouds brought. Perhaps it was only just bad weather, or perhaps not. Cid couldn't risk them all being eaten by the Lake Guardian and there was a slight chance that the dark clouds might not be as terrifying as it appears to be. So he decided that they would stay here and hide out. There were several hidden rooms in the Dome and Cid knew of one in particular.

"We need to hide." Cid said.

He led the group into a hidden room behind one of the large columns supporting the wall. There was a switch hidden in one of the bricks, which Cid pushed in order to reveal the hidden room. The hidden room was connected to the others via a series of narrow passages that ran through the walls of the structure.

Meanwhile the Dark Cloud was moving faster and faster, soon it was able to reach the shores of island where the Dome was. The vampire ship was anchored near the shores, the passengers used row boats to get to the island. The Vampire Lord smiled after stepping foot in the island, but she immediately saw something on the beach that turned her smile into a frown. There were several footsteps in the sand and the tools used by the crew were there. The Vampire Lord then ordered her minions sweep the island. Vampires have a acute sense of smell and they are able to track down anything that has blood running through it's body.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Lake Guardian


Yui's hair blew back from the gust of wind escaping the crypt, the foul smell in the air forcing her to cough a couple of times. She watched as Cid entered the location before anyone else, finding it quite surprising when he jumped his way out and demanded the door be closed again.

Rather than consider why he was jumping out or yelling, her mind simply found it amusing that Cid could jump back so quickly even when he was down a leg. Her mind snapped back to its usual semi-reasonable functions as the crew members slammed the gate, water spraying out of the locations where the door was not completely sealed.

She could feel a mild sense of dread as the realization that they couldn't go inside took hold, causing her to look back at the dark cloud. She couldn't quite tell, but it seemed to be getting larger or perhaps just getting that much closer to the group.

Yui's attention returned to Cid at the mention of hiding, trying to assist him in moving whilst he led the group around. After all, they didn't exactly have time to waste waiting for someone to hobble around at half-speed.

She watched as Cid started messing with bricks, a clicking sound being heard for the briefest of moments, followed by silence. The sound of stone grinding against stone could be heard as she considered that the clicking sound did nothing, putting any doubts to rest as a secret room revealed itself to the group.

Whilst the situation seemed pretty dire to her, she figured that she would have liked to have time to mess around in order to see if there were more secret areas like this one. After all, hidden passages and rooms are pretty cool and excessively rare on Earth.

Chapter 4: The Path Ahead

The Dome of Fontaine
Lake Guardian

The Vampires have reached Cid's old camp, the wreckage of the Sierra, and now they are inside the Dome of Fontaine. Their senses were highly attuned to sensing Blood. They were able to pick up traces of human blood in the air and from the walls. Meanwhile, Cid and the others were navigating through the maze-like structure of the hidden passages inside the walls of the Dome. They were headed for the Chamber of Fontaine, sealed room inside the Dome where the remains of the great Dragon rider Fontaine and her Dragon remained. While travelling, Cid heard something from behind the walls. He looked through a small mouse hole and saw a shadow pass through the corridors. It was most likely one of the vampires travelling in stealth form. Cid thought it was just his mind or the light playing tricks on him. But to be sure he signaled the others to be quiet.

The Vampires were able to sniff out the scent of blood but they kept running into walls. Sooner or later, they would figure out that there's a passage behind the walls but for now it's safe to say that Cid and the others were safe. Cid's instincts were right to try and hide from the Dark Cloud. He had little to no experience with Dark Monsters but he's heard countless stories about them back in Ravenghast. It was a good thing too that he chose to hide, because there was no way they could face an army of Vampires on their own.

While exploring the passages, Cid finds a locked chest. He breaks the lock open with his spear and takes what's inside and hands it over to Yui. "Here you can have this. This belonged to Jenn"

EQUIPMENT
Dragon Hide Armor Lv: 100 (E)
MOVES	HP	STM	STR	DEX	MAG	DEF	M.DEF
0	6000	0	0	0	0	0	1200
Info	Takes 50% less damage from Fire Elemental Attacks.

There was also some old Magical Ring inside the chest, he took it and handed it to Agnes and said, "You can have this. I'm not sure who used to own that but seeing as you're the Magical one around here, I reckon you should use this."

WEAPON
Old Cracked Magic Ring Lv:130 (B)
MOVES	HP	STM	STR	DEX	MAG	DEF	M.DEF
0	0	0	0	0	520	0	0
Info

Cid turned the corner and found himself in a dead end. The passage leading to the Chamber of Fontaine was blocked by a collapsed tunnel. "No this can't be. We need to get through here. There's something in that room that will help us cross the lake."