From Peasant to King Prologue
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...
By Ybrik Metaknight
As Delita Hyral rode his chocobo to Orbonne Monastery from nearby Dorter Trade City, he planned his course of action.
Delita led a small battalion of Nanten Knights to the monastery for one purpose: to kidnap Princess Ovelia Atkascha. Is this right? He wondered. Should we be kidnapping anyone for any purpose, political or otherwise? I don’t want to see any more young women become victims of politics. No more Tetas.
He shook these thoughts from his head as he pulled up on the reins of his yellow bird to come to a halt at the ruins of an abandoned church. He assumed that these ruins were the remnants of the original Orbonne Monastery, destroyed at the beginning of the Fifty Years War. The young knight signaled for his men to dismount their chocobos as he was doing, and come to his side for a last minute briefing.
“All right men,” Delita began, “we all need to be cautious in this mission. We are supposed to kidnap the princess and get out. Is that clear?” The knights under his command nodded and grunted, signaling that they understood. “However, there is a chance that we will run into some trouble. Ovelia is protected by a small force of knights under the command of Lady Agrias Oaks, a Holy Knight I once met years ago. Agrias’s Holy Sword skills are quite formidable, much better than mine, but then she studied under Balbanes Beoulve, and is quite a bit older than me. Watch out for her.”
Delita began pacing about and continued. “Also, the Hokuten have hired a force of mercenaries to help Agrias protect Ovelia. These mercenaries are led by the infamous Dark Knight, Gaff Gafgarion.” He paused while his men uttered gasps of horror. “Gafgarion’s force has increased in number dramatically over the last year, and rumor has it that Ramza Beoulve, using a false name, has joined ranks with the terrible mercenary. When night falls, we head in. Hopefully this storm will help us. Viggs, Wezaleff, Dish, and Fukes, you shall go with Lezales to provide distraction at the front door of the monastery, while I take Robert, Dog, Ted, and Vincent with me to invade the church from the rear entrance and kidnap Ovelia. Any questions?” His men all shook their heads and got comfortable as they waited for night to fall.
.
When sunset came, and the skies began to cry, perhaps for the innocence that was to be lost tonight, Delita and his men left their resting spot and headed for the last leg of their journey. Five minutes later, they were outside the monastery. Dish shot an arrow into the chest of the lone knight that was guarding the entrance. Fortunately for her, the arrow did not pierce her heart, so she was able to get back inside and warn her commander of the attack. This was exactly as Delita wanted it. As soon as she entered the church, Lezales and his squad took attack positions at the end of the road leading from the doors, while Delita took those under his command around to the back. A few minutes passed, and Delita heard a voice call out.
“Master of all swords, cut energy! Night Sword!” the voice yelled.
“That’s Gafgarion. That’s our cue to barge in,” Delita told his men, dismounting his chocobo. He kicked in the back door of the monastery, and charged in, leading his group into a narrow hallway, and was met by some familiar faces.
“Delita!?” a knight cried out in astonishment. “What are you doing alive, and here much less?”
“Ah, Scott Winters,” Delita said calmly. “I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough.” He then proceeded to punch Scott in the gut, forcing him to double over. His men spread out, attacking those he knew to be Alexis Winters (a thief), Rebecca Gray (a fledgling summoner), Lloyd Wright (a wizard), and Travis Compton (a monk). Man, I hate having to go up against my former allies, but whatever’s necessary is necessary, Delita thought as Scott, recovered from the blow to the stomach, lunged at him, sword drawn. Delita easily parried, and feigned a slice to Scott’s right arm. When his target swiveled around to avoid the fake slash, Delita punched him square in the face, knocking him out. “Sorry, my old friend,” Delita said, his voice devoid of emotion, as he walked past the unconscious body before him. “Stasis Sword!” he yelled out, thrusting his sword as if hacking into the air in front of him. Shards of ice showered down around Alexis, freezing her into place. Unfortunately, the spell also hit her opponent, Robert, whose body was unable to take such stress and promptly gave out on him. “Lightning Stab!” Delita cried, once again slashing at the air. A bolt of electricity speared Rebecca, nearly killing the poor girl. Although she did not die, she was temporarily unable to speak, so she could no longer cast the rudimentary summon spell she had been attempting. Her opponent, Dog, moved on to assist Ted in fighting Lloyd, clearing the way for Delita to fulfill his mission.
He climbed the stairs of the monastery, searching for the chapel tower. When he found it, he was quite surprised to find it unguarded. He walked in, intending to capture Princess Ovelia, when—BAAAM!!!—he was hit on the head with a candlestick. This did not cause him to black out, however, but only made him very dazed and confused. Not to mention angry.
Delita looked up with rage in his eyes to find the candlestick that had bashed him on the head in the hands of Simon Pen Rakshu, the head priest at Orbonne. “Doom of a planet…Crush Punch!” he called out, striking the air with his sword as he had so many times before. A red spike of energy shot up through the floor into Simon’s body, knocking the poor priest utterly senseless, rendering him unable to further resist the capture of the princess. “All right princess,” Delita said, grabbing the still-praying Ovelia by the arm and yanking her to her feet, “you’re coming with me!”
Shaken from her apparent trance, Ovelia cried out in terror. “AAAAHHH!!! Let go of me!!!”
Dragging her down to the ground floor and the rear exit, he saw, much to his horror that Vincent was the only man still standing. Travis and Lloyd had been taken down by some of his men at some point, but Alexis had recovered from the frozen state Delita had left her in, and had apparently done away with Ted and Dog before moving on to Vincent.
“You go on, boss,” Vincent told Delita. “I can hold her off a little while longer.” The look in his eyes told Delita that he had no intention of leaving the cathedral alive. Deciding he would weep for his men later, all nine of them, Delita headed for the exit.
“Let go of me!” Ovelia cried out as Delita slammed the door open and finished tying her arms together.
“Damn!” Delita heard a voice from the front of the monastery, where apparently the battle had just ended in the favor of Agrias and Gafgarion’s forces. He recognized this voice to be that of Agrias Oaks, and heard her barge into the church, signaling that he was running out of time.
“Come here! Be quiet!!” Delita exclaimed, dragging his prisoner from the back of the monastery to his chocobo waiting patiently.
“Why should I listen to you!?” Ovelia demanded, struggling to escape her captor.
“What an annoying Princess,” Delita said, punching her in the gut so hard that she couldn’t breathe, much less try to get away. He then threw her form on top of his chocobo, and then climbed on top of his bird himself.
Agrias burst out of the church, calling out, “Wait!!”
“Tough…” Delita told her, “Don’t blame us. Blame yourself or God.” He then cracked the reins of his large bird and rode off through the small pond and the forest beyond it.
“Oh, God…” Agrias moaned, falling to her knees behind him.
Looking back, Delita indeed saw his old friend, Ramza Beoulve, cast a confused glance in his direction. Chuckling, Delita thought to himself, I can almost hear his confused words now: “…Delita?? You’re alive, Delita? But, why are you in Goltana’s troops? Why…?” Hmph! Wouldn’t he like to know!
And so, Delita rode off into the night with Ovelia.
.
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive!”
--Sir Walter Scott, Marmion