Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time Fan Fiction ❯ Yaoi Ocean 3 ❯ Chapter Twenty: Maze and Tower ( Chapter 20 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter Twenty

Maze and Tower

Albel was angry. Fayt didn't know why he let it bother him; Albel was usually angry about something or other. But he didn't like seeing him this angry. It made all the happier moments from the past week stand out all the more starkly in contrast. It actually made it a bit more painful. Only this morning, they had all had sex, and seemed happier as they were all together, carefully not mentioning what would happen after they left the resort. Then they had to leave for Diplo and everyone had to decide what they wanted to do. The fairytale world they had so carefully constructed had toppled, like a house of cards.

Fayt wanted to go home. Cliff wanted to return to Diplo. Where did that leave Albel? He could understand where he was angry, but it wasn't like Fayt wanted to stay away forever. He tried telling Albel that, but the other just didn't seem to believe him. He didn't even believe him when Fayt, almost in tears, holding on desperately to his lover's arms, looking up at him, pleaded with him to believe that he would come back. But he didn't believe him. Cliff had lapsed into an impenetrable silence throughout the whole thing.

“We'll be together again, right?” Fayt asked him desperately. The blonde look at him sadly, then looked away. He wasn't sure. He didn't want to give the kid false hope, and he also didn't want to crush his hopes needlessly. So, he was silent. Albel was only insistent that Fayt and Cliff would never come back and hardly spoke except to snap a comment or insult at them. He glared at anyone else, daring them to be cheery. The mood was grim.

Maria set coordinates for Elicoor to drop off Nel and Albel. It didn't take long to get there either. Fayt grabbed Albel. The Elicoorian stopped in his tracks, but didn't turn to look at him. The Earthling moved in front of him. He kissed Albel's passive lips urgently, then desperately. Fayt looked up at him, imagining that he might actually cry out in mental agony over this. Albel didn't believe he was coming back. “Please,” he insisted. “I'll come back.” The swordsman only looked at him. His eyes seemed sad. “Albel…” The Glyphian looked away and walked past him. Fayt started to go after him, but a restraining hand on his shoulder kept him back. Fayt looked up at Cliff. “What do I do?” he asked him.

Cliff shook his head slowly from side to side. “Just leave him be for now. Just prove him wrong. That's what he wants you to do anyway,” he said with a shrug of his shoulder. He didn't like seeing Fayt look so upset. He hugged him close to him briefly, then let go of him, walking after Albel. Why did Fayt feel like things were slowly falling apart?

Albel and Nel headed for the teleporter. Mirage punched in the proper settings. Fayt suddenly stopped her. “Wait! There's something I wanted to look at. Any way you can hold on for a bit?” he asked. He glanced at Albel, some of the desperation leaking through his expression. The samurai looked at him blankly, no expression at all on his face.

Maria frowned. “What do you want to look at?”
Fayt shrugged a shoulder helplessly. Albel raised an eyebrow. “Did you ever explore Kirlsa?” the Earthling asked.

The question took Maria a little by surprise. “Excuse me?”
“Kirlsa. Did you ever walk around it?”
“Well, no… Not really.”

Fayt looked around the group. Everyone was staring at him now. “There was a closed off area. I want to go see what's in it. There was something… different about it.”

Maria shrugged a shoulder. “Sure. Mirage, send us down closer to Kirlsa.”

“Roger.”

The entire group decided they might as well go. Everyone followed Fayt down there, a little skeptically. Oddly enough, the closed off area was now open. They went inside, past a “disintegrate-able” area and found something like a teleporter that definitely did not look like it belonged on Elicoor. One by one, they used it and ended up in a room that was certainly a little out of time and space. A voice over an intercom system informed them that the area they were in now was another part of “the game” and was more difficult, and mentioned something about game settings.

They all looked at each other quizzically, and around the room confusedly. They decided to explore. Mirage contacted Diplo and told them what they were up to, so Diplo stayed in orbit and waited for them. They were growing accustomed to waiting these days.

The enemies here were much stronger than many they had encountered so far. After much wandering, slaying of creatures, and other such, they came across a rather rude girl by the name of “Puffy.” She dropped a key as she ran from the room. Fayt picked it up and they continued onwards through the confusing maze. Past the room they needed the key to open, they found Puffy in terrible pain looking like she needed some kind of medicine.

Fayt considered for a moment. He had found an “experimental remedy” that Puffy said she needed back in the Maze, but she had been a real bitch and had been quite rude after they saved her from the beast attacking her… His well-mannered disposition got the better of him, so he sighed and handed it over to her anyway, even though it was quite tempting to let her suffer.

Puffy ended up being a genius of a compounding inventor, and she signed with Fayt for having helped her out. Well, that was cool. They continued on their way down through the maze.

They stopped for lunch in an area that was like a sliding puzzle with no enemies about.

“This is weird,” Sophia commented. “This entire place, I mean. It's just weird.”

“And confusing,” Fayt added. Most everyone else nodded in agreement. “Should we head back?”

Cliff snorted. “No way. Let's keep going.” Everyone else seemed to want to reach the end of the Maze of Tribulations as well. Fayt wanted to stay and keep going too. But he didn't care so much about getting to the end as spending time with Cliff and Albel while he still could. He wasn't sure how the other two felt, but they were here, and that must say something.

“We need a more effective way of dealing with the Dead Dragons,” Nel commented. “The MP kills are… well, killing us.”

They debated on this subject for a while and the best team they came up with for this was Sophia (given), Maria (for long-range), and Adray. Shame that they had left Adray in Aquaria, so Nel was substituted.

They struggled their way through the maze. They encountered a little girl with a giant spear that seemed to want to kill them, but never fought them herself and always summoned something instead. Odd. For an example, she summoned Duke Vox once. Albel was not impressed and snickered throughout most of the battle. Fayt, Nel, and Cliff were merely annoyed. Maria, Sophia, and Mirage didn't know who he was, so didn't understand how ridiculous this was, but shrugged and went along with it anyway. After the fight, Fayt explained about how Duke Vox had died quite some time ago. Again, odd.

Furthermore, they encountered a… creature… on the second level called “Santa.” “Santa” was creepy and had a face on his stomach. Fayt was glad when they left “Santa's” presence, despite that “Santa” had some nice items for sale.

They continued ever onwards, having to backtrack occasionally, but they got some good leveling in.

They only encountered some real trouble when an angel-like creature appeared at the end of the maze when they seemed to have gotten all the way through it. Maria identified him as “Gabriel Celesta.” By his reputation, they didn't know whether he was to be considered really strong or really weak and plunged headlong into the battle not really knowing what they were in for.

It ended up being the former. He had attacks that were devastating and took up nearly the entire area, leaving only a bitty corner or two where they didn't get hit with it. Sophia stayed cowering in a corner, casting and healing as needed from afar. She cast Fairie's Light practically eternally though. Out of desperation, Fayt threw a Duck-Duck Bomb at him, and it kept him stunned long enough to do some damage and in this fashion, they eventually achieved victory, though it had been hard-gained and now they had no more stun bombs of any sort and were a bit low on healing items. In addition, they were a bit surprised that they were alive and relatively healthy, if thoroughly exhausted and in need of medical treatment, rest, food, and perhaps a bath.

As Gabriel accepted his defeat, he mentioned something about a seal being broken and a long journey ahead of them. It wasn't until they started to leave that it actually dawned on Fayt.

“Sphere Company!” he cried out suddenly. Everyone turned and stared at him as if he were daft, but the Earthling realized that he was on to something so went on regardless. “At Sphere, there were about 100 floors we couldn't access. Gabriel Celesta meant that. That's the seal that was broken, I know it!”
Everyone looked at each other. Mirage shrugged. “Let's go take a look then.” They headed to the 4D world after they restocked on items and attended to any battle wounds. They stopped in Kirlsa briefly for lunch and finally on to Sphere 211. Sure enough, Fayt was right. He grinned smugly at the others. No one paid any attention to him though. They took a deep breath and began the long journey to the top.

Sphere 211 is a gigantic tower with 211 floors. While they could skip to floor 101 and thus spare themselves about 100 floors, a hundred more floors was still a long walk. All the same… they had nothing better that they could be doing. Besides, this way, no one was splitting up and leaving. No one was going home just yet this way so long as they kept finding these dungeons. This way, they were still all together. But for how long?

There were a few different types of floor layouts that were shuffled about the building somewhat randomly. It was all quite confusing and dull actually. Of course, the enemies gave out a lot of experience and money, so that was all well and good, but it was still tedious. Occasionally, they found some good items and even some “ultimate attacks” and other such, which was all well and good but all the continual climbing of floors was still as tedious as ever. A boss fight came about every ten floors or so.

The first one was “Norton.” Fayt swore he looked familiar, but couldn't quite say from where. After the fight, he still continued to puzzle over it. “I think I've seen him before, but I just don't really remember…”

Cliff flicked him in the back of the head. “That's the guy who was about to shoot you to death before I showed up and saved your ass,” he reminded him.

“Oh,” Fayt said, frowning in thought. He still didn't quite… Then his memory suddenly surfaced in his mind. “Oh! That guy!”
“Yeah, `that guy,'” Cliff said. He laughed at Fayt's expression and kissed his temple, just because he looked so damn cute. Fayt batted at him a bit, a little embarrassed for having forgotten about Norton, his first real fight he had ever been in.

They continued onwards. About ten floors later, they had to defeat “Enraged Crosell.” It may have been difficult because he was huge and getting stepped on probably would have crushed them flat, but everyone stuck to long-range attacks and just ran like hell any time he came close enough to step on them. There were a couple close calls, but nothing serious enough to warrant death.

Afterwards, Fayt came up to Albel and suddenly kissed him. Albel blinked in surprise. “Fayt?” he wondered.

Fayt smiled up at him. “Good memories,” he said, winking playfully. Albel smiled slowly, knowing exactly what Fayt was thinking of. It was their adventure with Crosell that had brought all three of them together, after all. Going to see Crosell that got him released from prison, Cliff who had healed him and had sex with him in the Eagle, and then he and Fayt had been alone together in the mountains. He kissed Fayt gently before they continued ever onward. Around five floors more and everyone was feeling pretty beat. They took the elevator down and went back to the Eternal Sphere to stay at an inn or something. Arias wasn't far, so they just decided to stay there. There weren't enough rooms in the mansion, so Maria, Mirage, and Sophia stayed at the inn.

Albel snuck up behind Cliff and tackled him, pushing him onto the bed. Fayt grinned and joined in. The two pinned Cliff down as best they could. Cliff managed to lift Albel off of him, but Fayt grabbed Cliff and slipped his hand down his pants, causing Cliff to drop Albel back on top of him. Before long, instead of the wrestling, they were wrestling each other out of their clothes, kissing, touching, moving. Their clothing lay scattered on the floor, a mixture of blue and white, black, and violet and gold. Scattered amongst their clothing lay weapons and armor. If they had been in less of a hurry, they may have given these things more heed, but they were far more interested in each other.

Skin slid across skin, wet kisses trailed down necks, fingers caressed, legs spread. Albel left a trail of wet kiss down Cliff's chest, to his groin. He covered him with his mouth, inhaling deeply before he moved his lips further down his shaft. He moaned suddenly when Fayt's shaking fingers trailed along his legs, up to his erection, cupping him, fondling him. Cliff pushed his fingers deeper inside of Fayt. The Earthling cried out, twisting, arching his back to get a better angle. He could smell pre-cum and feel it drip off of him. He started to pant and could feel his hurt pounding in his chest.

Albel sat up, licking his lips. Fayt's hands fell away. Albel leaned forward over Cliff, positioning him with one hand, and moving down on him with his hips. He moaned softly. Cliff jerked his hips, pushing up into him. Albel grunted. Fayt leaned toward Cliff, kissing him hard, catching the blonde's moans in his mouth. Fayt jerked his head up, crying out loudly as Cliff ground his fingers into him. He panted for a moment, watching Albel move against the blonde. Cliff's free hand tugged on Albel's long hair gently. Albel leaned down, kissing first Cliff and then Fayt.

Fayt thought, I'll miss him.

Fayt wrapped his arms around Albel. I'll miss you. He kissed him for a long time, trying desperately not to part even when he was panting and they were both moaning. Albel broke the kiss, tilting his head back, letting out a loud groan ending in a gasp. Cliff touched Fayt's shoulder. Fayt looked back at him. And I'll miss you too.

Fayt kissed Cliff's free hand, sucking on his fingers. He moved his head down between Albel's legs, sliding Albel into his mouth, caressing him with his tongue like a gentle but firm massage. He felt the Elicoorian's hand against his back, sliding on the sweat building there, then gliding up to his head, his fingers gently curling and uncurling in his short blue hair.

Fayt gasped and nearly gagged as a result when Cliff slipped a third finger inside him. Fayt tried to keep his breathing steady and keep his mouth moving. Cliff ran his other hand along Albel's side, feeling the little dips and curves of his body, enjoying the way his well-toned muscle felt as he flexed and moved gently on top of him, trying not to disturb Fayt.

Albel gasped suddenly, choking on air as he tried to breathe, panting hard. Fayt had become quite skilled with his tongue. His fingers tightened in Fayt's hair. He jerked his hips, sliding against Cliff and moving in Fayt's mouth. Cliff pushed into him. Fayt slid his tongue along his entire length, lapping the base. Fayt could feel him pulsing in his mouth. He prepared himself, and just in time. Albel moaned again, gasping, as he released into his lover's mouth. Fayt grimaced a little, and swallowed. He swallowed some of his spit a second time. He tilted his head up. Cliff ground against Albel a little, then lifted him off of him, setting him down beside him. Albel panted, trying to catch his breath.

Cliff sat up, leaning over Fayt. He pushed Fayt onto his back, kissing him gently. He moved his fingers out of him and entered him. He ground into Fayt, trying to relive the first time they had had sex, so long ago, in this very room, against the wall.

Fayt's fingernails bit into Cliff's shoulders. His trembling legs wrapped around the Klausian's waist. Fayt yelped a little, then sighed, pushing against Cliff. Cliff thought about all the moments like this. In this very room, in Peterny, Aquios, Diplo, Aquaelie, even that first kiss back at the Kirlsa Caverns. He kissed Fayt, remembering Fayt's first confused reaction to it. Yes, it had all been worth it.

Cliff groaned, pushing deep inside Fayt. He moved gently inside him as he released deep in his bowels. Fayt moaned at the feeling, pushing more against him. Cliff took a long, deep breath followed by another. He moved down between Fayt's legs. Albel leaned forward, watching, ever a voyeur. Albel kissed Fayt, toying with the Earthling's nipples and chest as Cliff paid attention to the lower half of him. Cliff pulled back, not wanting to swallow semen. He let Fayt come into his hands instead. It dripped off of his fingers like a sort of sticky milk. Albel crawled over to him, taking each finger into his mouth, licking it clean, lapping at his palms in a manner very akin to a housecat licking cream off of someone's fingers.

They curled up together on the other bed to relax and catch their breath.

Cliff was sitting up. Fayt was curled between his legs, his head resting in his lap. Cliff idly played with Fayt's hair. Albel leaned against Cliff's shoulder.

“Fayt, you don't want to go through Sphere just so we can stay together longer, do you?” Cliff said, his voice teasing.

Fayt smiled softly. “Of course. I wouldn't bother otherwise. Sphere is still kind of interesting so far, but really, I just want some more time with you guys.”

“The truth is out,” Cliff said confidentially to Albel. Fayt pinched Cliff's leg slightly. The Klausian only laughed a little.

When they were ready, they went back to the other bed for another round before they finally retired for the night.

The next morning, everyone had breakfast and then it was off to Sphere 211 again. Nel teased them that she heard them last night. Fayt attempted to hide and failed; Cliff grabbed him and kept him from fleeing, continuing to eat with his other hand. Albel leaned his head down to hide his expression under his hair. Maria grinned. “Cli-iff, you're blushing a little,” she giggled.

Fayt and Albel looked up to see Cliff, who had a small, embarrassed smile on his pinkish face. It wasn't a blush like Fayt's tomato-like flushes, but he was still embarrassed. “Aw,” Fayt said, leaning down and kissed Clff's cheek. “How cute.” Cliff considered for a moment, then stuffed a bread roll into Fayt's mouth before he could say anything else. Fayt scowled, chewed, and continued picking at the roll instead of making commentary. Sophia felt embarrassed for them and hid her face behind a tall glass of fruit juice.

“Fayt, you are loud,” Nel went on. The Earthling boy sunk low in his chair. Cliff's fingers dug tighter into his shirt, preventing him from making his escape. “Almost as loud as Albel,” she continued. The Elicoorian went to leave. Cliff grabbed his hair with his other hand to keep him from running away, pushing him back down into his chair. The issue was that now he had to stop eating. What a predicament. He needed more arms.

Cliff stared mournfully at his half-finished meal. Fayt grinned suddenly and reached across the Klausian to poke Albel in the ribs. Albel looked up and Fayt gestured to Cliff's plate, then to the one restraining them. The Glyphian got the other's meaning and the two proceeded to attempt to feed Cliff, the way someone might feed a disliked prisoner bent on starving himself to death to escape.

“Stop trying to feed me!” Cliff complained.

“Well, you can't eat any other way,” Albel said with fake, cheery bright that everyone else found to be violently disturbing. If an opinion poll had been taken, everyone would have agreed that Albel was forbidden from using that tone of voice ever again because it was the stuff of creepy nightmares.

“Well… I…”

“And you haven't finished eating. Breakfast is an important part of the day,” Fayt said in his best motherly voice. Sophia covered her laugh with a hand. Mirage was trying very hard not to giggle. Maria snickered. Nel smiled. Fayt attempted to shove a spoonful of food into Cliff's mouth. When his mouth didn't open, he started rubbing the contents of the spoon along his lips obnoxiously.

“Oh, fine!” the Klausian said, letting go of both of them. “Run away!” Albel grinned and licked the food off of Cliff's mouth, which was about all he had eaten all morning. He went outside now. Fayt was quick to follow him.

After breakfast, they headed back to Sphere Company to continue on up the tower.

Onward and upward they traveled, collecting useful items, ultimate attacks, ultimate weapons, and chatting casually along the way. Everyone seemed to be feeling pretty good about the way today was going. They would make better progress with a whole day ahead of them—maybe even complete it, or at least come close.

Another ten floors up from where they had left off, they had to fight Shadow Dragon, which claimed to be stronger than Crosell, though smaller. Ordinarily, that would be frightening, he was seemed to be all talk and they defeated him without any real issues. It was a bit of a let-down really considering his boasts, but no worries. A bit disappointed, the group marched ever onwards.

The next boss battle had Albel snickering in the background, mocking the person they were fighting for the vast majority of the battle. It was “Vengeful Shelby” and Albel was not impressed in the least. Neither was anyone else. They weren't sure how he had learned to spray ice breath, but none of his attacks did a whole lot of damage and they defeated him pretty easily, but Nel got a nice weapon from him that she couldn't use because they needed to be refined back at a workshop lest they break first, like the other weapons they had received so far. What a pain.

“They'll probably be really good once they're refined,” Maria commented, looking at the knives in Nel's hands. But for right now, they had about a 100% probability of breaking, like Mirage's Valorous Gauntlets from yesterday that they had refined last night.

Ten floors later, it was Frenzied Biwig. Fayt actually grinned wickedly at the beginning of this battle in a way that pleased Albel. Fayt didn't mind getting a second opportunity to kill the person who had murdered his father and injured his lover. In fact, it was very much gratifying when, once again, they annihilated the asshole.

“Hey, Albel,” Cliff called, raising the weapon they had received from this battle. “This is for you.”

“Yeah?” Albel sauntered over to him and snatched it. His eyes widened with a sort of awed reverence. “It's…” Yes, it was his ultimate weapon.

Fayt peered over his shoulder. “Er… It looks like a retarded dragon.”

Albel stowed the claw away for now, as it also needed to be refined, and smacked Fayt upside the head for his insolence before continuing on to the next floor. Fayt rubbed his head where Albel had hit it, scowling at the back of the Elicoorian's head. Cliff passed him and planted a kiss there, teasingly. Fayt smiled up at him.

A floor or so higher, they encountered some Scumbag type of enemies. Not thinking that this would be a big deal, they entered the minor battle with over-confidence. Sophia was killed off almost immediately and everyone else had to run for their lives and revive Sophia with some Fresh Sage. They ran back a ways and pondered how to get through the next area.

The issue was that the scumbags did a half decent amount of damage per hit, and there were quite a few of them. They were also a bit fast, and were immune to stun, which proved to be quite troublesome. It wasn't such a big deal that they did damage, it was when three to five of them closed in around one of them for a gang beat. More or less, it was the scumbag's revenge, because they had been so easy at the beginning.

“Let's retreat for now,” Fayt said with a sigh. Besides, everyone was a bit tired and needed a break anyway. They headed back to Gemity for lunch and tried to decide what to do.

A group of 4D beings sat at a table adjacent to them. They were scowling at a small sword that sat on the table. “I can't believe we went through that battle in the arena just for this thing.”

“Yeah, I mean, what can you do with a Scumbag Slayer?” another said.

Fayt raised his head. `Scumbag Slayer'?

“'Instantly kills scumbags,'” a third quoted. “What good is that?”

Fayt looked around the group to see who else had been listening. They had been. One of the games in the arena, hmm? They headed to the arena and asked the receptionist about the prizes. She signed them up for the appropriate fight and once they beat it, they were awarded the Scumbag Slayer. They took it back to a workshop and refined it.

Triumphantly, Fayt equipped it and they went back to the appropriate floor and set Fayt loose on the Scumbags, which all died instantly when faced with the mighty power of the Scumbag Slayer. Fayt felt pleased, standing triumphantly on the battlefield with his Scumbag Slayer in one hand, posed as if for a photo. Albel informed him that he looked stupid. Fayt politely ignored him and equipped his regular sword.

The next boss was significantly more difficult than the others they had faced thus far and seemed quite interested in coating his fangs and claws with blood. Nail polish might have been more affective, but getting that much of it would have been practically impossible anyway. The Green Mojara's claws could deal quite an impressive amount of damage, but it was his ice breath that was truly devastating. They had to use a lot of guard breaking techniques and everyone worked together for an MP kill. Maria's Pulse Blast was invaluable for that battle. Afterwards, everyone decided to rest and catch their breath.

Cliff swiped his palm across his forehead. “Wasn't expecting anything like that,” he commented.

Mirage nodded in agreement. “They seem to be getting progressively stronger. We can expect stronger enemies in the future here, I think,” she said. She glanced upwards. “On the floors to come.”

Fayt groaned, leaning his head against Cliff's shoulder. “I fell down and landed badly. My muscles are all cramped…”

“We could go back to an inn or something,” Sophia suggested. Being the only healer, she was the only one who never seemed to get a break.

“I agree,” Nel said with a slight incline of her head. “Let's go back to Peterny and rest.”

“'Peterny'?” Cliff wondered.

The redhead nodded. “Yeah. We could all use a bath.” They really were covered in sweat. Fayt insisted they head up a floor or two higher first. After three more floors were cleared, they traveled back to Peterny.

The girls went to the female only bath and the boys headed to their bath. The water felt fantastic, and getting the sweat out of their hair was reviving actually. After the bath, they had a light dinner taken in their room. Fayt massaged his neck. He felt so stiff, even after the bath.

Cliff volunteered to massage his back and neck. Fayt shrugged and agreed. Cliff was surprisingly good at it, and once he had massaged all the stiffness and the tension out of his shoulders, Fayt was soon dozing lightly. Cliff pulled the blanket over him. Fayt snuggled deeper into the covers, quickly falling into a deeper sleep. He felt content and happy here, with them.

While Cliff did that, Albel did some routine maintenance on his gauntlet idly. Cliff noticed that his left shoulder seemed to bother him. “You need a massage too?” he asked.

Albel considered, rotating his shoulder as he thought about it. It felt horribly stiff and ached a little from the constant strain his armor gave him. He nodded. “Sure.” He set the gauntlet down on the table and laid down next to Fayt. Cliff went to work massaging his aching muscles. Twenty minutes into it, Albel started falling asleep. Cliff tested the shoulder. All the tension was gone and he seemed to be all right.

Cliff picked Albel up and scooted into bed, laying the Elicoor down on top of him. Fayt automatically rolled over to him, snuggled gently against his side. Albel laid his head down on Cliff's chest, watching Fayt in his sleep as he slowly nodded off. Cliff watched the two until sleep claimed him, enjoying the feel of Albel's steady heart against his own, listening to Fayt's steady breathing and the released carbon dioxide from Fayt's lungs brush against his side, and relishing the warmth of their bodies.

Waking was pleasant, and made a little more special because not a one of them had moved from the comfortable place they had fallen asleep in, and the first thing each of them saw upon waking was the others.