Causality and Sacrifice Part 1

As Griffith remained in a state of shock, he thought that if he had this kind of power back then, he could have taken a Kingdom for himself years ago.

"You didn't use Mana Reinforcement?" Glenn asked as his horse trotted alongside the Chocobo.

Guts smiled and said, "I wanted to see how far I could go with a human's strength. Besides, it's good workout."

"I see the lessons paid off. Remember, the humanoid part on their giant bodies is the weak point of those types of demons," Glenn said, shocking the crew who knew about his magic.

The Band of the Hawk didn't know where the Chocobo came from, but they didn't think Magic was involved with its appearance. They just assumed it was some weird foreign animal from across the oceans.

Since the light blinded everyone before the appearance of Boko, they thought it dashed out of the forest or something.

Glenn hopped off the horse and fed Boko a Gyshal Green. The bird quickly chowed down and swallowed the green before he chirped happily.

"Cute!" Casca stated as she walked up to the Chocobo and asked, "Can…can I pat it?"

"Sure! Chocobo's are smart animals. They can't understand your words, but they can feel your intentions. Oh, and it's a she," Glenn said as Casca petted the large, yellow bird.

The Chocobo nuzzled his beak against Casca's face and licked her.

Guts and the rest of the Band were snerking at seeing Casca's girly side as she gave in to the urge of cuddling with the Chocobo.

"Ahem," Glenn said after a few minutes.

Casca realized what she was doing and jumped away from the Chocobo with an embarrassed expression.

The rest of the crowd was more focused on the body of Wyld being pulled into the abyss. The vortex of evil swallowed up his soul and for a second, they all got a glimpse of hell.

"Alright, we have to move out!" Casca said, drawing everyone's focus to her.

The crowd quickly got their heads straight before they gathered up and headed towards the rendezvous point.

It took them a week to make it to the borders of Midland. During that time, Glenn discovered that his Summon Materia had finally reached master level.

A new Chocobo Summon Materia propagated from the slot in Glenn's armor.

Glenn caught it before passing it off to Guts around the time they made it to the expansive grassy field where the rest of the two hundred members of the Band of the Hawk waited.

After joining up with the group and a short celebration, Glenn shooed them away to give Griffith a medical exam.

They watched the grass and wild wheat sway in the winds as they made camp.

Griffith was looking better than yesterday. Some of his fat had returned, and his stomach wasn't as empty as it used to look.

Glenn was checking his pulse and giving Griffith a health examination to the best of his ability.

Back in his world, Glenn dated a paramedic, and he took crash-courses emergency first aid as part of his police training. But even with his rudimentary medical knowledge, it was still far better than anything this middle-aged society had to offer.

"You should be able to eat heavy foods soon. Once you can eat meat, we'll get you started on daily therapeutic sessions for your muscles. We'll have you walk with your peoples' help for a few hours a day, then I'll give you a cane to use until you can walk on your own," Glenn said as he stood up, ready to leave the back of the wagon.

"Why are you helping us so much?" Griffith asked.

"To be honest, I just want you to make a different choice," Glenn said as he hopped out of the wagon and walked over to Guts and the rest.

"How is he?" Casca and Guts asked at the same time.

"Everything checks out. Griffith will be running on two feet in a month or so," Glenn responded.

The crowd breathed a sigh of relief, when all of a sudden; a large shadow flew over them, spooking the horses and soldiers.

Glenn looked up and saw Zodd flying above them.

The horses attached to Griffith's wagon took off towards the nearby lake.

Glenn gritted his teeth as he watched everyone mount up and run after him.

Glenn got on Boko and dashed off ahead of everybody.

Griffith's weak body was flung from the wagon and rolled through the pond facing down.

Griffith tried to move but couldn't. His limbs were broken, and he was so weak, he couldn't lift his boney body from the few feet of water he was under.

"I don't want to die!" The thought repeatedly passed through Griffith's head.

Griffith could feel his lungs beginning to fill with water. Guts and the rest arrived moments before the Behelit of the King drifted to him, touching his body.

Before Glenn could reach Guts, the final thought Griffith had before he activated the Behelit was, "I haven't accomplished my dream!"

A loud boom echoed across the plains as the scenery surrounding the Band of the Hawk was filled with a hellscape of human faces.

The blood-tinted ground and sky each looked like individual Behelits clumped together. The sun blotted out by the eclipse, the air was thin, and they were surrounded by a hoard of naked men and women.

"How'd we get surrounded?!" Casca shouted as she tried to steady her horse.

Guts and Glenn were already at Griffith's side and healed him before helping him get back to the group.

It didn't take long for the God Hand members to start manifesting their physical bodies.

Slan, the evil demon god of lust and fire, started to lift her giant body out from the ground and into the sky. Bat-like wings formed sprouted from her back and covered her privates like a robe.

Ubick, the demon god of manipulation and chaos, formed out of the cloud-like faces in the sky. His short seed-shaped body with multiple fin-like tendrils flew down beside the Band of the Hawk.

Ubick showed a gleeful expression as examined the Band of the Hawk through his dark glasses that were infused into his skin.

Forming behind the Band of the Hawk, the ground clumped together into the shape of Conrad, the bloated pucker-faced demonic god of pest and pestilence.

His hands clasped together with intertwined fingers, the fat evil god smiled and looked up at the dark sun.

From out of the shadow cast by the eclipse, Void's form took shape. He had a partially defoliated skull with a large exposed brain.

His skull lacked a calvarium, and his brain was larger than the top of his head, making it seem like a crown of sorts.

The skin surrounding his intact skull is drawn tight to the bone, his nose is missing, and his lips and surrounding skin are retracted by skin-like wires.

His eyelids are stitched shut, his inhumanly long arms, fingers, and hands, hidden underneath a long black cloak with a high pointed collar.

The four members of the God Hand then gathered by each other, and stood side by side. The many Apostles surrounding the Band of the Hawk then threw their hands up and cheered at the arrival of their gods.

"Gods! No, are they demons?!" Guts thought as he shook in horror.

Suddenly, Void began to speak, silencing the crowd as he said, "At this great time of blessing, I bid thee welcome to this distant setting; to this, abstract time. Ye Lambs of the ungodly god born of man. Enjoy this sacred nocturnal festival to the fullest."

Void then pointed his hand to Griffith and said, "Thee, honorable child consecrated by the laws of causality. The White Hawk."

Murmurs started to spread around the Band of the Hawk.

"What the hell is happening?! What the hell are they talking about?" A random Hawk member shouted out.

"Honorable child?" Casca questioned.

"Laws of causality?" Corkus stuttered.

"What the hell is all this supposed to mean?!" Guts thought to himself.

"Thou art the chosen one. At this time, in this place, the one chosen by the hand of the great god. We art Kinsmen, o blessed King of longing," Void's voice echoed out from a distance.

Griffith was stunned. He didn't know what to say or how to respond.

While the Band of the Hawk talked amongst themselves questioning what the God Hand called their leader, Guts lifted his sword and shouted, "No, way! Enough of your stupid shit!"

Everyone's attention turned to Guts as he held the Dragon Slayer with one arm and pointed it in the direction of the God Hand.

"Frist, you drag us into this Godforsaken hellhole, then you ramble on about a bunch of nonsense. Consecrated child?! Kinsman? Keep your bull shit to yourself!!! I've seen this guy naked, and he ain't got so much as a tail growing. Don't you dare lump him together with you freaks!!!"

"Guts," Casca mumbled in surprise.

Every one of the God Hand except Void giggled and laughed.

"Such a beautiful friendship! I am sure you will make an excellent sacrifice," Slan stated as she licked her lips.

"Sacrifice?" Many of the Band members stuttered.

"Yes! A precious sacrifice. So that he may become a demon!" Slan stated as she groped her breast and lustfully looked over the crowd.

Griffith furrowed his brows, which surprised Glenn.

"From the moment you took possession of that Crimson Behelit, you had the qualities to become a demon," Ubick announced.

Guts and Griffith looked down at the Behelit around Griffith's wrists and noticed it was bleeding from its wide-open eyes.

"No, perhaps I should say that because you had those qualities, it fell into your hands. That you used the Behelit to summon us is evidence that you are qualified to be our Kinsmen. After all, all the Apostles gathered here used Behelits to obtain their proper form." Ubick corrected his earlier statement.

Guts looked around at the other Apostles and widened his eyes as he thought, "That means...that they are all like Zodd!!!"

"Furthermore, the Behelit you hold in no ordinary Behelit," Ubick said as he pointed to Griffith's hand.

"Only one who can be reborn as one of us, the Guardian Angels of the God Hand, may own the Crimson Behelit; the Egg of the King. All who are gathered here are invaluable sacrifices for the angelic advent."

"We are sacrifices?" The words of disbelief spread across the Band of the Hawk while the Apostles showed their true forms.

There was but one word to describe the endless hoards of grotesque demonic beings surrounding them; despair.

"There ain't no way! There ain't no way Giffith will become monsters like you. I won't let you turn my friend into no demon!" Guts shouted out.

"We will do nothing! It will be by his choice. He will offer you all as sacrifices," Slan declared.

"The hell he will!" Glenn shouted out.

Everyone turned to see Glenn with a white Aura surrounding his body.

"You calm this is an act of God, which God? You only follow the idea of evil, one facet of God's entirety. You claim this is an act of causality. Then why do you pressure others to become a demon? Why do you entice them with such things as manifest destiny, power, revenge, and survival? The Behelit shows its true form, huh? Then why is its expression in such pain? You are false Gods, corrupt beings who have lived for too long. Why haven't you told Griffith that the Behelit has other uses? And that you're not the only ones it can summon?"

The God Hand was at a loss. Void sensed a deep and forbidding sensation of disruption coming from the causality they've manipulated for years.

Glenn then turned to Guts and said, "Don't move."

Suddenly, Glenn placed his hand on Gut's shoulder and retrieved the items he was wearing before equipping Guts with the Level 60 Antiquated Abyss Armor Set and Edenchoir Tassets of Healing.

The Stat Bonuses it gave Guts were as...

+4204 Defense.

+4526 Magic Defense.

+382 Determination (Increase all Damage by 4.3%)

+501 Tenacity (8.5% DMG+MAG/DMG Resistance.)

+148+Piety(1,184 Bonus MP and 384 Mana Regeneration per minute.)

677+Strength

674+Vitality

265+Mind.

373+Skill Speed.

221+Spell Speed.

331+Critical Damage.

He then gave Casca the Antiquated Trueblood Set and FF7's Champion's Belt.

Pippin received the Diamond Armor Set with a Bubble Belt.

He even gave Corkus a set of Arhat Scouting Gear with a Speed Belt.

Unfortunately, he didn't have enough set armors for the entire Band. And would only give Griffith the set he had in mind; if he chose differently.

The three felt their bodies swelling with strength as the magic from the armor sets' flowed into them.

Glenn then pulled out his strongest Red Mage Sword, the Antiquated Murgleis.

The long sword was thinner than most and had glowing ember-colored veins running through the fuller of the blade.

The guard was in the shape of a dragon breathing fire, the hilt was smooth and connected to the dragon's tail, while a lava-like gem glowed at the end of the pommel.

Glenn then pointed his sword at the Evil Gods and said, "Screw your false ideals of causality."

"All lies within the currents of causality!!!" Void yelled in anger.

"Everything has already been determined. Not even an anomaly can change this face. Begin the Invocation of Doom!" Void ordered his fellow God Hand members.