Fantasia Begins Part 1

Glenn woke up the next day. Still tired and exhausted, he rubbed the Cursed Brand over the top of the right side of his bicep and sighed.

He sat up, perceived that he was surrounded by 15 men or so. He then noticed that he was sitting in a cave with dim lights with a nearby running cave stream.

Before Glenn could get up, Rickert jumped and suddenly shouted, "Glenn! He's up!"

Everyone in the Band of the Hawk cheered as Glenn got up and chased after Rickert.

When he got outside, he saw Guts, Casca, Pippin, Griffith, and Corkus, all surrounded by the remaining members from the Band of the Hawk.

When they saw that Glenn was okay, they tried to show a cheerful expression, but the loss of the majority of their allies weighed heavily on their minds.

Glenn felt even worse. He was so sure that if Griffith said no, it would turn out in their favor. If he had come clean and acted earlier, he might have been able to save even more.

"Hey, guys," Glenn said as he waved his hand.

"Glenn, I thank you for helping us, but could you explain something for us?" Griffith asked.

"Go ahead, ask your questions," Glenn replied.

"Did you truly know this would happen?"

Glenn looked surprised and then to Guts.

Guts gave him a suspicious look before saying, "That Skull Knight called you an Outsider no longer. And that you knew this event would happen."

Glenn sighed, "Yes, it's true. I knew this would happen."

"Then why, didn't you warn us!!!" Guts ran forward and gripped Glenn by the collar of his clothing.

Glenn sighed, "I couldn't. Not without revealing myself to the God Hand. Call me a coward, but I didn't want to die," Glenn responded, shocking the group.

"What do you mean?" Griffith asked as he made Guts lower his hand.

"Hey, I tried to stop it in my own way! If I interfered with your destiny, like, telling you what was going to happen and directly influencing your decision. The God Hand wouldn't have stood by and let it happen. They would have summoned the most-powerful Apostles and probably hunt me down to kill me off. Honestly, I hoped that you saying no would solve this whole dilemma," Glenn answered truthfully.

"Did you know I would be tortured?" Griffith asked.

Everyone's eyes shifted to Glenn again.

"Hey, I warned you not to do anything rash. Not my fault you didn't listen, and failed to keep it in your pants," Glenn said as he crossed his arms and cocked his head off to the side.

Guts and Casca were about to blow a casket when Griffith raised his hand to his chin and said, "Fair enough. What can we do about this brand?"

 "Nothing, short of killing the one who branded you, even then, I'm not sure it will disappear," Glenn answered.

Glenn then sat down against a random rock in the field and said, "I hate to break it to you, but I don't know how to remove this curse. However, I can try."

Glenn used the Dispel Spell and tried to remove the curse from his body.

However, something unexpected happened. The wound closed up but didn't disappear entirely. After a few seconds, the Brand of the Sacrifice returned.

"Okay, what about Holy Water," Glenn said as he pulled out a bottle of clear water and poured it over the curse mark.

Once again, it numbed the feeling of pain and partially healed, but the only difference was that it lasted longer than the spell.

By the time the water dried up, the mark had fully returned.

"Okay, so the only other option we have is to seek out a mage talented in making seals, so we can repress the curse marks," Glenn stated as he stood up and cracked his knuckles.

"Can't you make the seals?" Guts asked.

"I'm less than a novice when it comes to this region's magic. And I am rather young for a practitioner of magic. I'm only 45-years-old. We need someone who's thousands of years old to make seals strong enough to suppress this curse," Glenn replied.

"You're forty-five? You don't look a day over thirty," Casca shouted.

"Godo here is even older than I am. As long as I have the Regen Spell, I can keep my youth," Glenn responded with a cocky expression.

"So, where is it we can find a which?" Corkus asked.

Glenn shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know."

"But you're a Mage, right?" Rickert asked while Corkus showed signs of mentally breaking.

"You think all spell casters know each other? Rickert, I come from a very distant land. One so far away, you can never fathom the distance. I was plucked from that place and sent here, not through my own choice. I know little of how magic-users act here," Glenn sighed before he started to walk towards Godo's house.

Blood started to pour out of everybody's curse marks.

Suddenly, Erica screamed in the distance as a loud lightning bolt came crashing down nearby.

Then another scream followed three more lightning bolts.

The main party ran over to see a pile of burnt flesh that used to be an Apostle.

"Smells like burnt pork," Guts said as he kicked at the corpse of the Pig-like Apostle.

"It worked, Guts! I leveled up like you said I would!" Erica shouted as she came running.

Glenn looked at the new Materia in her hands and tilted his head before, "Someone master a Materia?"

 Glenn didn't know it, but he was close to mastering all of his own Materia that he had equipped. If he hadn't spent as much time healing as he spent fighting, that is.

"Yeah, a few came out when I was fighting," Guts explained as he pulled out three additional EXP Plus Materias and copies of all his other Materias.

Glenn pinched his glabella as he thought, "It must continue to propagate once it levels up after the Materia reaches mastery. It makes sense now that there is no system here to stop it from gaining AP."

Glenn then started to get some ideas for the future of Midland.

He imagined everyone wearing Materia to level up, learning magic, and running around to slay magical monsters from ancient lore.

"How will that be any different from the Fantasy Online Game," Glenn thought before he sighed and said, "Okay, that's good news, we can distribute the EXP Plus Materias to the remaining members of the Band of the Hawk. If we go around killing off Apostles, we can probably find a Witch or two. For now, give Judeau and Rickert an EXP-Plus Materia, and we can store whatever Materia you've mastered with Griffith while he waits here in the mine. I'll let you guys pick and choose what Materia to equip," Glenn stated as he summoned a Chocobo and Mog.

After whispering something to the Mog, the cute bipedal beast nodded his head and said, "Leave it to me, boss. Kopu!"

"For now, I want to propagate my Chocobo Materia. Can you imagine a fleet of these guys riding into battle!" Glenn said as he stored the Materia in a regular pouch.

"But...they are so cute!" Casca said as she stared at Boko and the Mog.

"Cute, but deadly. Those talons and beaks aren't just for show," Guts commented.

"Luckily, Mog is a good magic teacher and he can plant some seeds from his world. If we can make potions and other useful concoctions, it will improve our chances," Glenn said before dismissing Mog to give him time to gather herbs and special items that would help from the world he was summoned from.

Griffith nodded his head and said, "The Princess and I will use this place as our fortress. We can probably dig out more space in the cave and add lighting. Guts, can I borrow your strength once more?"

Guts nodded his head, "Sure, until the Band of the Hawk gets back on its feet, consider me to be back with the group," Guts declared as he lifted the Dragon Slayer over his shoulder.

"Thank you, friend," Griffith said with a smile on his face.

"For now, we gather our forces. We need to meet up with Judeau and gather the remaining members of the Band of the Hawk. I send Rickert out with Pippin." Griffith ordered.

"What about Guts?" Glenn asked.

"Guts already gave us information on how to control our Mana. Thanks to what little Erica has said, this leveling-up has increased what Guts called our Internal Mana and made our bodies stronger. I suppose we can learn to cast as well," Griffith said while holding a lightning Materia.

"We'll stay here to learn magic. Guts can start hunting down Apostles and report their movements to me," Griffith answered.

"If you want to teach Mana Reinforcement, you'll need to use this sword," Glenn said as he threw out the Tuning Sword.

"What about me?" Casca asked while pointing at her face.

"You go with Guts and help him locate..." Griffith wanted to continue, but Glenn interrupted him by saying, "Casca should stay here."

Everyone looked at Glenn again when he held his hands up and said, "To be fair, it has nothing to do with her being a woman. Rather, the fact that she's currently pregnant."

This time all eyes turned to Casca, who currently had a vibrant red face. Guts looked at her with widened eyes and an open mouth.

Griffith too seemed surprised as he blinked a few times in her direction.

"I...I..." Casca couldn't say anything as one of her unit members fainted.

"You can't deny it. Your body has two sources of Mana. And it seems that the EXP Plus has affected the fetus's level as well," Glenn said, making Casca show signs of worry.

Glenn smiled at the fact that she was worried about her kid when he said, "Relax, a baby's stats are still a baby's stats. Your body is strong enough to carry the child. But man...your kid will be different. I imagine he's already aware of your existence."

Glenn tilted his head, "I wonder if the fetus can hear yet."

Glenn Sense Skill told him that the fetus was already level 20. Its stats were all question marks. But Glenn didn't know if that was because he didn't have organs to show the stats. The only thing it had was a large pool of Mana.

The downside to his spells like Libra and his skills was that for some reason, nobodies' health points showed up, not even his own.

Casca was still ripe like a tomato when Guts placed his hand on her shoulder and asked, "Is it true?"

"Well, there were signs," Casca replied while she lowered her head and pointed her index fingers together.

Guts didn't know what to say when Glenn came over, hooked his arm around the front of Gut's neck, and started to drag him away as he said, "I'm going to borrow this guy for a few minutes."

Glenn dragged Guts beyond hearing distance and hit him in the back of the head.

"Ow! What the hell?!" Guts shouted in anger.

"You messed up, bro! When a lady tells you she's carrying your kid, you better jump for joy," Glenn said with an expression of righteous fury on his face.

"I... don't know how to be a Father. Even thinking about it is freaking me out more than life or death combat," Guts replied.

"Haah…listen, man. No one knows how to be a Father before they are one. You got an idea of what not to do?" Glenn asked.

"Um... sure." Guts replied with a weak tone.

"Good, avoid everything you're thinking of, love your kid, and raise him or her with respect. That's all about what we can do as parents," Glenn responded.

"You speaking from experience?" Guts asked as he lifted a brow.

"I'm more than twenty years your senior. What do you think?" Glenn said as he looked up.

"Any advice?" Guts could see a look of pain on Glenn's face, even if he attempted to hide it.

"Sure! Don't hurt your kid. Pretty simple, right?" Glenn replied as he walked away.

Guts walked back to Casca and hugged her. The guys from the Raiders whistled and cheered for their Captain while the men from Casca's Unit cried like babies that missed their chance.

Glenn watched from a distance and smiled before he noticed the flying Ark Summon and his Chocobo were out at the same time.

Glenn rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

"I can use more than one Summon if they come from different Final Fantasy Worlds? Not only that, it appears that Ark doesn't need my Mana to sustain him being in this world! The Pumice seems to be sustaining the summoning," Glenn mumbled as he pulled the Baby Chocobo Materia from the Remake and summoned it next to Boko.

"Hah!" Glenn chuckled as he petted the flying chick.

"There are four Final Fantasy Worlds I can think of that use items to Summon. Aetheryte, Materia, Magicite, and Gems. Luckily, it seems that I can use Variant Worlds such as Crisis Core and FF7-Remake at the same time. So altogether, I can summon six beings from the Final Fantasy Worlds. Thankfully, I have a good stock of these items. If I was still playing Fantasy World Online, I wouldn't be able to use them without the proper classes. I could only use them for crafting items. However, in this world, that requirement is gone."

While Glenn experimented, he was approached by Griffith, who asked, "Can you write us a list for the progression and effects of the Materia?"

"Hmm, that's a good idea. Plus, I want to see what happens if you connect a Third Materia Slot. I want to know if I can use triple combinations." Glenn said as he went over to Casca and said, "Here, take this."

Casca saw the Red Orb in Glenn's hand and said, "Didn't you say we could only have one summon at a time?"

Glenn waved his hand and said, "This Materia is different. Now go on, it's a congratulatory gift to celebrate your kid."

Casca accepted it and used it to resummon the Chocobo Chick under her control.

Casca's eyes glowed as she looked into the adorable creature's eyes and hugged it, "Thank you, Glenn."

Glenn then looked over his stock of Materia and thought, "I have 4 copies of almost all Materia except for Summons. The only magic Materia I'm missing is Ultima, Holy, and all the Master Materias. I don't have Knights of the Round either. The only Magicite that I'm missing is Crusader, and I only have one of each of Aetheryite, Magicite, and Gems from FF9."

Glenn pulled out a few parchments of paper and got to work. After several hours of writing a thick Materia Guide. When Glenn finished, he headed out to meet with Godo and asked him to create a testing plate with multiple connected Materia-Slots.

When he made a three-slot combo, it worked to his surprise. However, when a fourth was attempted, the plate of metal cracked at crumbled like a piece of broken glass.

Glenn tried to use a tougher piece of metal ore to see if that made any difference. But not even Mithril could withstand a 4 Materia Combo.

Another problem occurred when he added two triple-slots to a single piece of metal; the plate almost exploded alongside the Materia.

Glenn took what he could get and had the Dragon Slayer refurbished along with the armor sets Glenn handed out.

Glenn managed to upgrade his best Sword/Wand. Instead of having its usual two Materia Slots, Godo added Two Triple-Slots. There was one triple slot on the dragon-shaped guard, and the other around the gem-like orb that acted as the sword's pommel.

After completion, Glenn was pleased to see that improved its stats by double the original numbers.

Glenn's armor was light cloth armor with a muscle-shaped metal plate stitched into the chest and abs. The only other metal parts were on his elbow guards, the tops of his fingerless gloves, knee guards, and steel-toed boots.

So when it was reforged, it didn't gain much of an improvement other than the triple slots installed on them.

Over the course of two days, the Band of the Hawk met up with Judeau and the Princess. They were brought up to speed but took some time to believe what they were hearing.

It took Glenn summoning Diablo with the Magicite. The odd thing was that the Brand had reacted to his presence and bled.

After removing the demonic summon from this world, the group talked about strategy before Guts and Glenn would have to leave.

Glenn gave out tents and all his spare Materia. He also gave a handful of Magicite to Griffith so that the surviving members of the Branded Band of the Hawk could have a weapon to use.

Glenn was also surprised that after a full day, the Summon Materia for his Chocobo/Mog Summon was Mastered. On top of the Mog had come back with many things to bless the grounds around Godo's forge alongside dozens of unique herbs that needed to be cultivated for potion making.

The longer he had the Summons out, the more AP it gathered. After half a day, the Materia propagated again and left Glenn with three Summon Materias.

Glenn gave one to Griffith and Guts before they headed off on Chocobos to hunt Apostles.

Glenn and Guts wandered across Midland and killed off many random Apostles with ease.

The Improved Antiquated Abyss Armor was far better than Gut's Berserker's Armor from the canon. For one, Guts didn't have to worry about losing his sanity. The other good bit was that it vastly improved his status to Apostle-like levels.

Guts was still rather moody when it came to fighting the Apostles. However, with Glenn's comradeship, he wasn't as mentally unstable as he used to be.

It took them time to adjust to tireless nights. However, for some reason, Glenn's portable cottage kept them from being attacked by violent and vengeful spirits, letting them rest their tired souls when needed. 

A few months into their war on evil, Glenn and Guts ended up at a very familiar castle.

When they entered the local Tavern to get some information on the enemy, Glenn spotted a group of city guards throwing daggers at a defenseless Elf.

Guts rolled his eyes because he saw Glenn moving to interrupt. Glenn took his fist and planted it straight into the guard's throat.

The guard flew back and coughed up a mouthful of blood before he slowly slid down the side of the Tavern's wall and died on the floor.

Glenn took the rope off of Puck and said, "It's an honor to meet an Elf. Tell me, Pesky, do you know where we can find those connected to magic?"

"Are you some kind of Spirit?" Puck noticed the vast amount of Internal Mana flowing through Glenn and Guts before he saw the guards drawing their weapons from behind.

Puck then pointed his finger and said, "Look out behind, mister!"

However, Glenn smiled at said, "It's fine."

Before the guards could attack, Guts drew the Dragon Slayer and chopped through three of them in one stroke.

Glenn then turned to the remaining guard, who was quivering in his boots, and stopped on his knee before asking, "Your Baron happens to be a Monster, right?"

Guts noticed the look of surprise on the Guard's face and said, "That's good enough for me."

Glenn nodded his head before he turned to Puck and asked, "Wanna come watch us slay a monster?"

Puck's eyes were still wide, and his expression was still shocked when Glenn plucked him up and put him in Gut's satchel.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" Guts shouted in annoyance.

"What, we need to keep this little guy nearby. Elves and spell casters go hand in hand. This guy might be able to lead us to a witch or wizard," Glenn responded.

"But…why me?" Guts moaned as they walked outside the Tavern.

"It can heal wounds, and Elves are said to be able to ward off evil spirits," Glenn replied.

"'It' has a name! The name's Puck," Puck said as he flew out of Gut's satchel and landed on his shoulder.

"So, what are you two guys, mages? And what with the size of that sword? How can you even swing that thing?" Puck questioned as he inspected Guts.

While Guts ignored Puck's inquisition, they made their way to the gates of the castle.

"What are you going to do?" Puck asked before Guts turned his head and said, "This!"

With a mighty swing of his sword, four after images of the Dragon Slayer followed behind the original.

Guts had activated his x4 Cut and enchanted the blade with the Flare Spell.

A massive and loud explosion tore through the eight-foot reinforced wooden door. Splinters shot forward like bullets, killing the few guards behind it.

Glenn walked forward into the darkly lit and gothic castle interior.

As Guts followed after, he turned his head back to the fairy-like Elf and said, "You coming?"

Puck looked a little undecided and then said, "Sure, you seem kind of like a legendary monster you'd read in a fairy tale. I should see some fun stuff if I tag along with you."

"Stay out of the way when the fighting starts," Guts added as he placed his hand on the back of his neck and wiped away the blood.

Glenn pulled out some bandages and poured holy water on them.

After tying it around his arm, he handed some to Guts.

Guts took the Holy Bandages and wrapped it around his neck before saying, "Thanks."

Glenn waved his hand and then turned back to searching for the Apostle in the castle.

They didn't have to wait very long before the Snake-Man showed up.

With a look of excitement on his face, the Apostle stared down at his invaders. He was wearing full-plate armor in the design of a snake and carrying a large halberd.

Clapping his hands a few times, the Lord of the land gave them a subtle expression before saying, "Congratulations on having the bravery to attack my abode. But your journey ends here."

The man in front of them started to grow and morph into a giant snake/man hybrid.

"AHHH! M...m...monster!" Puck screamed while pointing his finger at the Apostle.

"Yeah, that's a monster, all right! Something that sacrificed a precious person to gain power, a weakling," Guts said as he lifted his sword to his shoulder.

 "You! How do you know that? Who are you?" The Snake Baron shouted.