40 Power Overwhelming

As the tendrils of darkness continued to spread, extending hundreds of meters, the sea started to bulge, the surface tensions ultimately breaking to reveal a massive, whale-like creature covered in a shimmering layer of brackish energy, beneath which glowed purple lights that flitted about like giant, fast-moving eyes.

"Fire!" shouted someone, prompting dozens of cannons to open fire, their elementally-infused projectiles slamming into the energy surrounding Sin, causing no observable harm to its surface. At the same time, Captain Lucil of the Chocobo Knights ordered her men to charge forward in response to the hundreds of insectoid/crustacean Sinspawn emerging from the water, charging up the shore.

Before the line of Crusaders could meet the Sinspawn, a massive wall of light appeared between them, rising like a curtain from the ground. At the same time, a massive, fiery vortex appeared in the shadowy skies above Sin, seemingly setting fire to the atmosphere as a beam of light emerged from the center, aimed at the monstrous fiend's head.

With the wall of light preventing them from advancing, the Crusaders on the beach, the teams manning the cannons, and the Al Bhed operating the ancient machina weapon all stopped in place, staring in awe as the vortex produced a conical veil of energy that spread open like a portal to another world. Then, from within, a five-meter tall, incredibly muscular figure with curved horns, a billowing cape, and a body clad in black and gold armor emerged, seated proudly atop a six-legged, heavily armored horse that ran vertically through the air as if running across flat ground.

As the people participating in Operation Mi'ihen stared, stock still with their mouths agape, the mysterious figure brandished a large spear, the tip of which crackled with violent energy. Sin began to gather dark purple energy above its head, but its efforts were too slow as the figure promptly loosed the spear, flinging it like a bolt of lightning that impacted the top of Sin's head, passing clean through it before plunging into the sea beneath its colossal frame.

Seemingly finished with what it had come to do, the mysterious figure leveled out and sped away toward the horizon as the sea beneath Sin erupted like a super volcano, the water within the bay vaporizing in an instant as a column of flame more than ten kilometers tall and hundreds of meters in diameter rose from the location the spear had struck. The force of the explosion was so powerful that the barrier of light fractured like glass, but before it could break completely, another terrifying scene occurred. This time, a colossal being even larger than Sin rose from the sea behind the plume of flame, its body a mass of purple, spine-covered flesh and tendrils dangling from a multi-tiered mouth that looked like the entrance to hell itself.

Though most of the Crusaders on the shoreline had ducked for cover or shielded their faces, a few bore witness to the sight of an eerie, spiraling light emanating from the monstrous creature's massive maw, producing a powerful gravitational pull that sucked in the pillar of flames and millions of gallons of seawater within seconds. Then, as quickly as it had come, it disappeared in a spiral of golden light, leaving nothing but an eerie silence that was eventually despoiled by the sound of water rushing in to fill the massive crater left in the bay...

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Exhaling a sigh of relief, Garnet lowered her crystalline staff and turned to face her spectators with a narrow-eyed smile. Except for Andrew, the rest hadn't seen her Eidolons in action, so some, such as Merlwyb, had doubts about her qualifications as the leader of the Interworld Alliance they had been discussing. Now, even Y'shtola wore a look of disbelief as she made a mental note not to get on Garnet's bad side.

"Is...is it over...?" asked Yuna, shattering the tentative silence, her eyes still wide from the scene she had just witnessed.

Shaking his head, Andrew responded, "Not likely..." as he could still see a few Sinspawn moving about on the shore. More notably, at least to him, Tidus hadn't started to disappear, the youthful protagonist standing atop the downed amalgamation with the same look of awe and disbelief as just about everyone else present.

"Just who are you people!?" exclaimed a short, middle-aged man with soft features, rounded cheeks, and a plump body garbed in floor-length yellow robes and an ornate stole, denoting his status as a Maester of Yevon. His bald head was usually had on a skullcap, but due to the wind produced by the earlier explosion, everyone could see his glossy, hairless, egg-shaped head.

"Is this the one?" asked Merlwyb, appearing behind the middle-aged man, recognizable throughout Spira as Maester Kinoc, with one of her pistols to his head.

"Get away from the Maester!" shouted a nearby Crusader, rushing over to provide aid, but Kinoc stopped him, shouting, "Stand down!" while raising his hands to indicate his intention to surrender. He had no idea who the tall, pale-skinned woman aiming a gun at him was, but even a literal egg could tell that she and the group that had mysteriously appeared weren't to be trifled with.

Snorting through her nose, Merlwyb remarked, "This one is too political-minded to be a serious threat. That leaves..."

Directing her gaze to Seymour, standing in the back with an entourage of long-fingered Guado bodyguards, a predatory smile reminiscent of a seal lion's developed across Merlwyb's face. When Seymour saw it, the pupils of his purple eyes contracted as he immediately raised his staff, creating a barrier to intercept the explosive projectiles that slammed into it, nearly sending him flying into the mushroom-shaped cliffs behind him.

"Protect the Maester...!" shouted the group of Guado, two rushing to Seymour's aid while six others charged at Merlwyb. However, before they could reach her, the bulky figure of Raubahn charged past her like a bull, swinging his massive swords in wide arcs, using the flat of his blades to send the Guado flying.

"It's been a while since I shared a battlefield with the Flame General," remarked Merlwyb, using the barrels of her guns like clubs to bash the head of a Guado that tried to assail her. In response, Raubahn stared at her with a severe expression, remarking, "Trust a pirate to cause trouble the moment they enter a new world..."

Amused by Raubahn's remark, Merlwyb exhaled a husky, full-throated laugh, stopping only when a three-pronged anchor fell from an abyssal black portal that had opened in the sky.

"Oh? What's this, now?" mused Merlwyb, taking a moment to reload her pistols as a towering, mummified creature with a heavily bound body and tusk-like teeth was pulled from the ground, its body flanked by red and blue 'petals' that resembled the mouth of a flytrap. Its heavily bandaged face only had a single, bright blue eye, but that was all it needed to cause some serious damage.

As the mummified monstrosity gathered energy around its singular eye, Merlwyb flicked her wrist to finish loading her pistols before firing at the apparent weak point. To her surprise, while the miniaturized cannonballs grew to their full size and impacted the monster's head, they inflicted no notable damage. At the same time, energy began to condense around her, causing her to mutter, "Well, that's not—" before she disappeared, just in time to evade a powerful, implosive force that nearly twisted Kinoc's arm off, causing him to collapse and scream.

Reappearing beside Andrew, Merlwyb briefly met his gaze and clicked her tongue. She doubted the attack he had saved her from would have been enough to kill her, but it definitely would have done some serious damage. In other words, she owed him one.

"Just what in the heck is going on here!?" shouted Tidus, joining Andrew, Yuna, and the group of strangers alongside Auron, Kimahri, Lulu, and a very conflicted-looking Wakka. He still firmly believed in Yevon and its teachings, so he couldn't believe they were attacking two of its Maesters. However, after seeing a pair of powerful 'Aeons' appear, seemingly taking out Sin, he smartly sided with Yuna and the mysterious group he assumed summoned them.

"We're nipping problems in the bud," declared Andrew, waiting for Garnet to finish buffing him with Regen, Shell, Protect, Haste, and Might before charging forward with extreme speed, joining Raubahn in trying to break the barrier surrounding Seymour's body. Luckily, he had just the thing to do it.

Materializing a saber with a scimitar curve and a striking golden sheen, Andrew surprised the struggling Seymour by stabbing cleanly through his magic barrier, piercing the half-Guado's stomach.

"Im...possible..." muttered the would-be villain, coughing up blood as he dropped his hands and, as a result, his magic barrier. Unfortunately for him, Andrew's saber was made from the same magic-scattering material as Garlean weapons and armor, so a typical magic barrier was completely useless against it. The downside was that it was costly to maintain since the materials used as a base were gold and other rare minerals.

Nearly catching Andrew off guard, Seymour lunged forward, attempting to push him but ultimately failing due to the rather drastic differences in their speed. Raubahn, however, was sent flying back as if he were hit by a truck, demonstrating that Seymour was no mere Summoner. He hid 'a lot' of power in his hybrid body.

In what would most likely be a vain attempt to prevent Seymour from becoming a thorn in his side, Andrew promptly cut the man's head off before he could attempt anything else.

Turning to face the massive, bandaged monstrosity, better known as Aeon, a 'failed' Final Aeon, Andrew breathed a sigh of relief as its body dispersed into tens of thousands of pyreflies. Anima had been produced by Seymour's mother sacrificing herself to become a Final Aeon, so while her body was bound for reasons he could only speculate, she was a 'very' powerful Aeon.

Gesturing Yuna over, Andrew said, "Come and send this asshole before he starts haunting us."

Though she was a little shaken after seeing Andrew cut someone down without hesitation, Yuna came to her senses and responded with a curt, "Understood!" before running over and preparing to perform the ritual that would send Seymour's soul to the Farplane, preventing him from lingering in the mortal world as an immortal Unsent. Before she could start, Auron promptly excused himself, dragging along a wounded Kinoc so they could have a private discussion about what had just transpired...

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With Sin failing to reappear near the shoreline, an impromptu celebration erupted as Crusaders and Al Bhed made merry, celebrating the apparent success of the operation. They still had no clue what had transpired, but they didn't care. All that mattered, at least at that exact moment, was that they had survived and that Sin, at least for a short while, had disappeared in a cloud of fire and destruction.

After having his arm mended, Kinoc smartly concluded that Seymour was the culprit responsible for the fiend outbreak in Luca. More importantly, it was discovered that Seymour was the culprit behind his father's, Maester Jyscal's, untimely demise. To that end, the man had no business being a Maester of Yevon, so rather than receiving condemnation for Seymour's death, Andrew received genuine gratitude from Kinoc. After all, while he would never admit it aloud, he was glad that Seymour was gone, viewing the man as a threat to his standing and authority. The only problem was, now that the planned massacre hadn't occurred, he would have a much more difficult time covering up the secret operation that had been carried out around the same time...

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Staring down at the scene of the impromptu festival happening on the beach, Andrew couldn't help smiling along with the brunette using his shoulder as a headrest. Sin was undoubtedly still alive, but they would have at least a few weeks, months, or even years before it returned to wreak havoc and destruction upon the people of Spira. By then, Garnet and her Eidolons would be even more powerful. Thus, even if she didn't complete her pilgrimage, Yuna was no longer worried about Sin getting out of hand. Not so long as she had Andrew...

With such thoughts in her mind, Yuna began to doze off before she and Andrew noticed someone approaching from the direction of the Mi'ihen Highroad. Seeing as they were limping, it was easy to conclude they were at least marginally injured. What amazed Andrew was that he recognized the person, a young woman with red eyes and short, silver hair, her body garbed in a scant, black leather ensemble...

'What the fuck is Paine doing here...?' he asked himself, having completely forgotten the plotline of Final Fantasy X-2 as he had gotten too distracted with the fiend arena, resulting in him never actually completing it...

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