revivalproject | [Open] Yet Another Underground Maze

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[Open] Yet Another Underground Maze

WHO: Gladiolus Amicitia, Sephiroth
WHERE: Warrens Maze
WHAT: A Maze Route
WHEN: Mid November
WARNINGS: N/A Yet

In a way all of this is so much like Gladio's personal history that it's scary. An apocalypse caused by a disease that happens to at the same time darken the skies? Check. People having to withdraw to a few beacons of metaphorical light in the darkness, check. Those beacons failing and people pulling back further? Check. Hell, even throwing oneself into an open and attested underground artificial structure to get through it to win an end to the darkness? Yeah, it all checks out.

Perhaps that's why Gladio approached who he did when all of this started. Not one of the kids he was training, not one of the adults that had their own plans, not even someone he's got a lot of experience with.

No, the moment the news comes over the semi-functional network that a new path has been opened and they have options, Gladio goes looking for someone he had seen pass him by a few times in the mines. Someone that came in with people and would head back out. Someone who had proven quite quickly to have a take charge kind of personality.

He looks for the silver haired man.

"Hey," he greets as he approaches Sephiroth. "I have a proposition for you."

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Why? Gladio shrugs.

"Might be they didn't know I had it. I summon it from the bond I share with my king and the connection he has to a crystal. It wasn't visible."

So he got away with it.

“… I see.” He wishes he could have such a bond with his sword. But such thoughts are pointless now.

“So we have weapons and supplies. I also have fire powers and knowledge of light and dark magic.” He demonstrates by making a small fireball in his hand.

To call it a bond with the sword was sadly not as accurate as it could be, but it was not like Gladiolus expected people to understand the esoteric workings of rare magic even on his own world. Here it was no shock that one would not know how things worked for him. Hell, he didn't even mind it that much.

"Magic was never something I was skilled with myself. More like I had someone who knew how to work up alchemic bottles. It will be nice ot have magic at my side again. Thank you."

If they didn't need to tarry then he saw no reason not to give moving on now.

Sephiroth nods, pleased to be able to provide something otherwise not available. "We seem to be well-prepared. Perhaps we should start out?" He lifts the bag of supplies he has packed.

"Indeed," Gladio says, smiling to himself. It's always nice to work with someone who knows what they're doing. "You have a lot of experience in long distance travel?"

Gladio isn't certain how long it will take to get wherever they are going, but he will be glad to hear the guy has any serious trudging experiences if it comes to it.

"Yes, quite a bit. I worked for a long time protecting people and I often had to travel long distances."

He prefers teleporting, but sometimes that just isn't the best way to get to where he needs to go, especially if he's unfamiliar with the area. He trained a lot in survival techniques for such scenarios.

"Same," Gladio notes before nodding. "Let's get going then."

He nods and immediately starts walking. No question that the guy will keep up. He's pretty tall too. Gladio doesn't imagine he needs to modulate his stride at all. Tells himself it's refreshing too, so it's better this way.

And yet he still misses his fiance.

Sephiroth nods too and begins walking as well. He does indeed keep up just fine. He's not much of a conversationalist as far as starting conversations, so he stays quiet and just keeps alert, looking around as they proceed down the path. He expects to encounter traps sooner or later.

See, they're definitely going to be quiet guys then. Gladio doesn't mind going quietly for a while. The thing is, it's a really dull walk after a while, and Gladio's about to open his mouth a long while in when they get to a split in the path.

"Well, seems like we've finally got some progress here. Think this is the split path the other team was talking about? I expect so. Got any preferences?"

"Most likely." Sephiroth studies it, trying to determine any possible differences between the paths. "I have no preference." He makes a move towards the nearest path.

Well Gladio isn't going to protest the closest open path. There's no greater or lesser value to it than there is to anywhere else, so yeah, he's down.

"So, seems like we might still have some time to pass. Mind if I ask you a question or two about yourself?"

"You're welcome to," Sephiroth says as they start to walk down the path. He isn't sure how open he'll be, depending on what's asked, but he's not opposed to the interest.

That's fair. Not many people that like others prying into their personal business. But Gladio was the sort that thought he was pretty tactful.

"How did you get your combat experience? You've clearly got it. I can see it in the way you move.:"

Sephiroth appreciates that.

“A lot of it was learned from my father, a retired military officer,” he says. “Later I trained with someone whose business was training aspiring heroes.”

Phil hadn’t been so cynical back then.

“I spent years going where I was needed to help those in trouble.”

"Sounds like me. My father started teaching me not long after I could walk," Gladio says with a nod. And then he'd been passed on to Cor and Drautos and a number of other talented men in their military.

HE could definitely get Sephiroth then.

"I even had the years of helping people, as something called a Hunter. Nearly a decade of it. Hunting monsters, saving people, bringing back supplies."

Sephiroth looks pleased. "We come from very similar backgrounds then. I did all of that in my line of work. Largely I was called upon to help when a particular kind of monster was starting to overrun the worlds."

"Yeah, same," Gladio sighs. "We didn't really succeed yet. But we're going to."

He can't have his Noctis, so he's going to go home and save his King at the very least. Take the victories you can after all.

"My friend and I were able to drive them back for a time, but it was much later when I discovered a more permanent way to get rid of them," Sephiroth says. And sadly too late to save Zack from falling off that cliff, so it feels a hollow victory to him at best. But at least he can keep the creatures from infesting worlds now....

A more permanent way. Hopefully it didn't involve fighting god. Because Gladio was planning that. Bahamut was not going to be amused.

"Then your world is pretty lucky. There's only one way to stop the Scourge at this point, and we're going to have to undermine destiny to do it."

So, you know, no guarantees there.

Thankfully nothing so drastic. Sephiroth trained and learned to control the things with the strength of his heart, so he could drive them out of wherever they are.

He frowned a bit. "Really. And how do you go about doing that?"

Definitely risky. But it sounded like the sort of thing he might do himself, if he was told something he hated and couldn't accept was destiny.

"Fight god," Gladio says with a shrug, as if it's that simple. And perhaps, in the comparison to everything else they have to go through, that really does feel simple. "Well, one of them. Only Bahamut. but he deserves it."

"Gods don't typically like when mortals fight them, unless they're amused by it," Sephiroth remarks. His main experiences have been with Greek gods, but he imagines it's the same for most, if not all, gods. "You believe you have enough power to win?"

"I think we do," Gladio says with a nod. "Bahamut needs the king, so we're hoping that helps us. And that the hate of his immortal great-whatever-uncle will help solidify our chances."

Because what other options do they have? The world is doomed either way.

"Hm. Well, I wish you success," Sephiroth says. "They do sometimes respond favorably if they can still get things they want out of it." He doesn't have Bahamut in his world, so he is unfamiliar with what kind of god that is or how reasonable he might be.

"Yeah, but dominance tends to be Bahamut's thing. I don't think he's going to get all of what he wants out of us."

Which will make it the fight of a lifetime. He's... not aching for it.

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