Girl power

Riovanes Castle

Events made a quick turn for the worse when a bloodied castle guard staggered out onto the bridge where we had just chased down his colleagues and collapsed. With the gates open, Ramza snuck into the castle proper, if only to ensure that Alma and Rapha were fine. He ignored the guard completely when he entered the castle – again, without thinking these things over. The guard was still alive, so I decided to hear him out instead.

He mumbled about some beast, with fangs and claws, before he succumbed to his wounds. He looked rather mauled, and I tried to heal him as much as I could, but he had already gone. Before I could begin to contemplate waiting around so I could draw his abilities as well, Carmen rushed over and said she wanted to put her geomancy to the test. She had rushed over and equipped herself with the first sword she managed to find and was ready for battle.

Lavian shrugged and decided to go back to the others. After having been knocked out several times in the moat, she had lost her patience with this lot, and she claimed she could use some rest anyway. Mustadio followed her to grab Luso by the collar. I seem to remember him shouting that from the sound of things, we needed a chemist in there, and Luso still needed a lot of practice.

Right, so now the team was complete again. Shouldn’t we go in there and follow Ramza? Who knows what he was up to in there…

Belias… Was it?

Before we did chase down Ramza, Greg decided he would put his geomancy to the test as well. He needed some more practice, though I didn’t quite understand why. Guess we weren’t leaving just yet, so I took the opportunity to grab myself a gun. You know, just in case…

We bumped into Ramza in the hall, frantically looking around for something or someone. He was out of breath and looked a bit battered. Somewhere between running into the castle and whatever had transpired there, he too had decided to put his geomancy to the test. There were still traces of contorted stone all over the carpet.

“Damn you, Wiegraf,” he muttered, and only then he noticed we were standing there.

But I knew enough. We hadn’t as much as reconvened, and there he was again. Teleported back in for another round. Damn you, Wiegra–

Wait… By the gods, what did he turn into? Four arms, horned head… Was that the creature that Ramza saw at the monastery?! Was this Belias?! He was worse than Cúchullainn, and I still hadn’t forgotten about that encounter. Why another one? That blasted auracite…

And of course, this one brought friends. Of course he did. As if fighting him alone wouldn’t be hard enough.

Ramza immediately began decorating the castle with new gargoyles as Belias had taken an interest in myself and Carmen. But we were ready. So ready to distract that big goaty creature while the boys did their best to fight off the archaeodemons, and… Failed miserably.

The three of them lay sprawled across the carpet, surrounded by grinning demons (and a stone one, who didn’t show much emotion after being petrified by Ramza). It was down to us, Carmen and myself, to save the day. We knew that if we felled that Belias thing, the archaeodemons would disappear as well. He’d summoned them, so it made sense.

So we focused all our power on Belias. Carmen concentrated every time she hit him with the Ice Brand she had grabbed from the armoury chest, and all I could do was shoot him to bits.

But we did it. We bloody did it. While the boys were bleeding unconscious on the carpet, we saved their hides from turning into crystal, and… we killed Belias.

Rest assured, Ramza, that I will not let you forget this.

I am Bathsua, of the victory fanfare, and these are my memoirs.