บท 436: Zanarkand Restored

Once the introductions with Cid was over with the old man began barking out orders to all of his employees, most of which were to pack up and leave Zanarkand since Yuna didn't want them there. As everyone began to move though Alex said,

"You know, I can speed things up." Cid looked up curiously and asked,

"Oh really?" Alex nodded and, without any further explanation, waved his hand and teleported every single person in the ruins of Zanarkand just outside the entrance.

"What the-!?" Cid exclaimed in surprise at the sudden transfer, before everyone else Alex transferred began to voice their own shock and outrage at having their exploration cut short.

Once he realized what happened though, Cid immediately asked,

"That's a nifty trick and all, but was there a reason to kick everyone out so suddenly?" With Yuna and the other two also looking at him curiously, Alex nodded and said,

"Yep, I have my own plans for this place." Then without bothering to explain further, Alex began rising up into the air.

"Come." Alex commanded once he reach a certain height, his voice echoing across all of Spira and alerting the masses that something was happening.

At first nothing happened, but as the seconds ticked by the people gathered below Alex began to notice several changes happening in the space around Alex.

"Something must be up if you're calling us all here~Nyan." A sultry voice with nefarious undertones declared, before a spot in the space around Alex began to ripple like water that had a pebble tossed into it. From the ripple a woman with pitch-black hair and golden eyes appeared, wearing a kimono that looked as if it had been woven from space itself with accents of actual gold. Most curious of all to the onlookers was the cat-like ears and nine tails that the woman possessed.

"Kuroka." Alex greeted his 'Queen' with a smile, before everyone else began to arrive. Rias appeared from a magic circle bearing her Gremory family's crest, Yue from the darkness around them itself, Shia smashed a hole through space with her strength, and Moka from within a swarm of bats.

Shizuku on the other hand cut a hole through space with her sword to allow her and Jin to walk through, while a sword fell from the sky that shone before it was replaced by Erza's majestic form. Grayfia appeared in a similar manner as Rias as she manifested from a silver magic circle bearing the crest of Lucifuge, before a swirling twister of pink energy formed next to her that faded to reveal the short and busty form of Kurumu, while Sun descended from the skies a moment later with her white feathered wings.

Next to her a ring of hair formed that slowly began to grow wider until Yami appeared in her usual black leather clothes, while Lala suddenly appeared as one of her inventions seemingly teleported her there, thankfully still with all of her clothes this time. Then finally Lucy appeared through a veil of starlight, while Mirajane flew in on her demonfied wings.

Alex looked at each and every one of the fourteen women around him, each one having devoted themselves to him and resolved themselves to walk alongside him through the multiverse. But there was an empty space.

Between Kuroka and Mirajane there was an area left open for one more person.

Alex looked down at the ground below, and said,

"Yuna, take your place." All of those who had been watching the appearance of the girls in awe turned suddenly to look at Yuna, curious as to what Alex was referring to.

"What...?" Yuna asked, confusion evident on her face as well.

"For the first time every single one of my peerage members are present, take your place amongst them." As he said that Alex pointed at the empty spot between Kuroka and Mirajane.

After a moment of hesitating, Yuna summoned her devil wings and took flight to take her place amongst Alex's peerage.

"Figured." Rikku muttered while Paine nodded slightly in agreement, both having long since realized there was SOMETHING between Yuna and Alex.

As Yuna took her place though, she was greeted by the majority of Alex's members as they welcomed her. And with everyone in place, Alex turned towards Kuroka and said,

"Kuroka, let's begin." Kuroka's smile widened as she held out her hands on either side of her body in preparation.

"Let's go~Nya!" She declared as black flames began to gather on her open palms.

"What are you going to do?" Yuna asked worriedly, to which Alex simply replied,

"Watch and see." Her curiosity and worry growing, all Yuna could do was watch as the black flames Kuroka summoned began to spin until they formed burning wheels.

Steadily the wheels began growing larger as they spun at a faster and faster rate, until Kuroka released them and both flames wheels shot at the ground.

"Kasha Wheels!" Kuroka declared right before they both impacted the ground, only for black flames to explode outwards as they washed over every squared inch of the Zanarkand ruins.

"What the-!"

"What are they doing!?"

"How dare they!?"

Outrage replaced confusion as the gathered people watched the flames wash over the most sacred place in Spira, and even Yuna demanded,

"What do you think you're doing!?" Instead of appearing perturbed by her reaction, Alex calmly explained,

"Kuroka's flames don't act like your typical fire, instead of just burning they're full of purifying energies. The ruins themselves are completely unaffected, though I can't same the same for the fiends and Pyreflies."

As he said, when Yuna looked down again she saw that the ruins themselves hadn't changed at all, but the air was suddenly filled with the sounds of screaming fiends as Kuroka's flames burned them alive. Same with the Pyreflies, as any that touched the black flames began to disperse as they were sent to the Farplane, which was the afterlife of Spira.

While watching the flames spread throughout all of Zanarkand to purify the Pyreflies and fiends, Alex then noticed a newcomer as a certain airship approached the ruins.

"The Fahrenheit?" Yuna uttered when she saw the familiar ship, which Cid had used to pilot herself and her Guardians around Spira two years prior. Now however it appeared he had been using the airship to ferry people back and forth to Zanarkand to run his business.

Within it was a new wave of tourists that had been eager to see the ruins of Zanarkand, but had instead arrived just in time to see the entire area engulfed in a sea of black flames.

"No way!" One of the passengers exclaimed, a girl wearing a green gown with her hair tied up.

"Get the camera going!" She exclaimed to one of the other passengers nearby, who readied a camera and pointed it at her as she readied her microphone. Once they were both ready she looked into the camera and began,

"Welcome, this is Shelinda of the Luca Sphere Network, coming to you live from above the ruins of Zanarkand. As you can see, below us the Dragon Emperor is gathered with a number of his presumed followers, one of which appears to be Lady Yuna, and another who appears to be burning the ruins with a strange black flame!"

As Shelinda spoke the camera broadcasted the image of the flames bathing the entirety of the ruins, before moving to focus on Alex himself. Of course, this image was being broadcasted to every major city in Spira, Luca, Bevelle, Guadosalam, and even Home, as well as the small towns on Kilika and Besaid islands.

Without the same context that Alex provided for Yuna and those who were watching in person, outrage and fury against Alex grew across all of Spira for destroying their sacred lands. That outrage however soon changed into confusion when the flames finally began to die down, revealing that the ruins were still perfectly fine.

What was revealed was the same ruins that had existed for the last thousand years, except now the land was completely clear of all the fiends and Pyreflies that had been its only residents.

"Now, it's time." Alex said as he began to rise even higher with the girls surrounding him. Once they stopped moving a massive magic circle spread out from beneath Alex's feet, followed immediately by more magic circles that were produced by Kuroka, Rias, Yue, and Grayfia.

With the immense magic power possessed by the five of them, the entirety of the ruins of Zanarkand was completely covered by their magic circles. For a moment nothing happened as the ruins were now lit up by the light of the magic circles, before the people began to notice a slight and subtle change.

Pieces of dust and sand began to come together to form larger and larger pieces, which then joined other pieces to become even larger. Soon even entire boulders began moving as they rejoined each other to form one large whole.

All around Spira people watched as a thousand years of wear and tear began to reverse itself, slowly but surely. But as literal decades of damage was undone, the strain on Alex and his wives increased.

Age of Gods magics was incredibly draining to begin with, but with all of their immense pools of magic power typically the drain was negligible. This time however Alex and the girls were trying to undo more than a THOUSAND years of destruction on an entire city, a city large enough to be one of the two ruling powers of the ancient world of Spira.

Even when Alex reversed the damage done to the entire world of Earthland after his battle with Darius, he had only needed to reverse a few hours and had received a significant power boost from the Boosted Gear Balance Breaker at the time. So, to ease the burden on his wives Alex decided to go ahead and use it.

<BOOST!>

A deep voice suddenly cried out, as a dark red gauntlet appeared on Alex's left arm.

<BOOST!>

Over and over again the automated voice cried out as Alex continued powering up the gauntlet, until he believed he had boosted enough times and a new word echoed out,

<TRANSFER!>

Immediately Kuroka, Rias, Yue, and Grayfia all felt a sudden surge of power as their magic reserves weren't just replenished, but were filled to the point of bursting as the restoration of Zanarkand increased at a noticeable rate.

Though she didn't know what was going on with the Boosted Gear on Alex's arm, Yuna still couldn't help the amazement she felt as she watched the ruins of Zanarkand restore themselves at an increasing pace. Around her the girls who weren't assisting in the restoration due to their not possessing either Regeneration magic, or the same skill in magic as the others, smirked and smiled knowingly as they watched the expressions on everyone else's faces.

Eventually they got to the point where instead of pebbles and boulders, entire sections of buildings began moving as they repaired themselves and de-crumbled. After one more Boosting session from Alex, the people that were watching began gasping as the restoration of Zanarkand entered its final stage. Tall skyscraper-like buildings rose while elevated roadways formed, and long empty canals were again filled with water.

As the final piece was connected and the restoration of Zanarkand was completed, Alex looked directly into the camera that was still broadcasting his image all over Spira, and declared in such a way that voice boomed over the entire continent,

"I present to all of you, Zanarkand!" All over Spira people were holding their breaths as they scarcely believed what they were seeing was real, that the ancient and sacred city had actually been restored to its former glory.

"I know it's hard to believe!" Alex continued. "But believe it you must! And just as a new day dawns on this once proud and great city, let a new day dawn over all of Spira! A day where talks of war and destruction don't exist! A day where brothers, sisters, lovers, parents and children aren't at each other's throats over one's beliefs or past transgressions!

"Let Zanarkand, a city that had been destroyed by war, represent the peace that Spira so rightly deserves! Let it be a beacon for those seeking healing, knowledge, and unity! I hereby invite all of those who would lead each of Spira's factions here in three days time to discuss the future of your respective people's, Youth League, New Yevon, Machine Faction, Al Bhed, Ronso, and Guado! Let us meet and bury the hatchets of the past, in order to lead Spira into a better future!

"WHAT SAY YOU?!"

As Alex's declaration echoed over every inch of Spira, thousands of voices answered back in affirmation, while some were silent in shame of the bloodlust they once felt. Already the vast majority of Spirans, not just the members and leaders of various factions, began making plans to travel to the restored city themselves.

...

As Alex's voice died down and the broadcast ended, all over Spira the different factions were reacting to the message and invitation he sent to them. As could be expected though, not everyone was pleased as the officials in the Holy City of Bevelle began to make an uproar.

"But Praetor Baralai, we can't let him get away with with!" One of the members of the New Yevon council declared, prompting a youthful looking man with fair features to look at him. He had white hair that was combed back and held in place with a blue bandana, and was fairly dark of skin while his robes came all the was up to his chin.

"'Get away' with what exactly?" The young man, Baralai, Praetor of New Yevon, asked the speaker in a soft voice, silencing the man immediately. Though a look around the council hall told Baralai that the man wasn't the only one who thought in such a way, and so he stood and said to them,

"Though the lands of Zanarkand have long since been regarded as sacred ground to the people of Spira, there is no reason to begrudge the Dragon Emperor for his actions. As he himself stated, the restoration of Zanarkand will mark a new day for all of Spira, hopefully one where we move forward from our troubled past and build a better future for those who will come after us."

As he trailed off Baralai listened as the members of the New Yevon council muttered amongst themselves in contemplation of what he just said. Though several of the council members were still angry with Alex for 'defiling' the sacred lands of Zanarkand, and even wanted to attack him, the majority agreed with his actions and the things he said as a whole.

Of course one of the things that were being discussed was the fact that High Summoner Yuna had been present with Alex when he restored Zanarkand, and made his speech. This increased his image to those who thought highly of Yuna for defeating Sin, and made them eager to meet such a man who could consecutively perform the impossible.

As the voices praising Alex and Yuna began to drown out those who spoke against them, Baralai smiled as he already began planning on the trip to Zanarkand. He was admittedly more than a little excited to see the city in person after its restoration.

Meanwhile of course similar discussions were taking place over all of Spira, as various leaders made their plans to travel to the restored city.

***

*meanwhile, in another universe*

*BOOM!*

Over and over again the sound of something heavy impacting the ground echoed through the kingdom, sending the people into a panic as the day they'd dreaded for the last year finally arrived.

"BY ORDER OF THE KING! ALL WOMEN AND CHILDREN ARE TO SEEK REFUGE WHILE EVERY BOY OVER THE AGE OF THIRTEEN IS TO READY THEMSELVES FOR BATTLE!" A knight shouted to the masses, the same message being repeated all over the city by dozens of Knights as they prepared for battle.

Meanwhile in the castle where the royal family stayed, the king had a grave look on his face as he looked down at the group kneeling before him.

"Rise, our hero chosen by the goddess and his companions!" At the king's command a youth stood, followed immediately by a crowd of young women who were all dressed for battle.

"The day you have been training for the last six months has finally arrived, lord hero. The Titans are at our door, and they will arrive within the hour!" As the king declared their impending doom, the hero who had been chosen through an oracle sent by the goddess bowed his head respectfully, and declared,

"I will not fail you your majesty! We may still not know where these Titans came from, but with the gifts I received from the goddess, and the skills I've honed by challenging the most dangerous dungeons the kingdom has to offer, WE WILL WIN!"

The king and the various other nobles gathered in the throne room nodded in approval as the members of the hero's party, half a dozen beautiful young women of various races, shouted their agreement. As the hero turned to leave in order to help the kingdom's soldiers prepare, the king and his vessels similarly left to prepare for war, as every available resource would be needed for this battle.

...

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YES! SCURRY YOU INSIGNIFICANT LITTLE BUGS! COWER BEFORE THE MIGHT OF THE TITAN GOD!"

As the kingdom prepared for battle, a small figure wearing a lab coat with long greasy black hair was standing atop a massive humanoid being that stood over sixty meters high, and was devoid of any skin. Around them marched an army of millions of other humanoid figures that varied in appearance and size, while a select few stood out from the rest.

One was completely covered in fur with a monkey-like face, another had thick armor-like skin covering its body, while a third possessed notably female physical traits, despite the rest of the millions of Titans were indistinguishable between male and female. As for the final three, one was covered with patterns of hardened Titan skin, another was smaller than the rest with an overly larger jaw, and the last of them was a Titan that was crawling around on all fours with what appeared to be a building strapped to its back.

Marching in a close circle around the Colossal Titan and the man riding it, they steadily approached the walls of the kingdom's Capitol city as the man sneered at their preparations.

"No matter what you do, it'll amount to nothing before the might of the Titans!" He declared, his voice being followed by the roars of millions of Titans that made the ground tremble even more beneath their mighty footfalls. And as they went the Titans left nothing but crushed and barren earth in their wake, leaving everything they passed through devoid of life.

"HOLY SLASH!" A voice suddenly shouted out, which was quickly followed by a flash of brilliant light that cut through more than a dozen Titans.

"Oh look! The man sneered as he noticed the culprit. "The little 'hero' has come out to play!"

Charging towards them on horseback was the Hero, accompanied by his party of beautiful women as they prepared to support him in combat, and the kingdom's forces of several thousand Knights and foot soldiers. Meanwhile a volley of projectiles were fired from the city walls, stones from catapults and javelins, accompanied by a series of differing magical attacks and arrows from the mages and archers.

It truly was the desperate last stand of a kingdom in dire straights.

"How pathetic." The man sneered as he directed his Titans forward, and the fur covered Titan, called the Beast Titan, pulled some boulders out of a massive sling on its back.

...

"Patty, prepare a magic attack to help punch a hole through their offensive line! Sheila, I'll leave defense to you so I can focus on attacking! Margret, support us where you can with your magic! Everyone else, work on cutting them down to size! Remember, this isn't like when we fought in the dungeon where we could retreat if we need to, failure here means destruction for what little life there is left! So FIGHT!"

As the Hero gave his commands to his companions they all prepared to fight, all of them having become exceptional in each of their respective professions after overcoming life and death battles one after another with each other.

Meanwhile the Knights behind them were to cut down as many of the monstrous Titans as possible while also lessening the burden on the Hero and his party, which would hopefully allow them to deal the finishing strike against the mastermind of the Titan attack. And with the Hero's command, the entire army urged their steeds forward at an even faster pace towards their enemy.

"'Scorching fire, heed my call and turn my foes to ash-'" Patty began chanting as she gathered her magic power, before pointing her staff at the Titans before them and declaring, "FIRE-"

*CRASH!*

The entire world seemed to slow down in that moment, as the hero looked back at her just in time to see a massive Boulder impact Patty, turning her into paste before anyone could even register what had happened or even react. Said Boulder then jumped and shot across the ground to take out an entire party of Knights as it continued its deadly charge through the line of metal armor and swords.

"PATTY!" One of the girls screamed at the all too sudden and gruesome end of their companion, before turning their tear filled eyes towards the marching Titan horde.

"KILL THEM ALL!" One of the girls shouted as she unsheathed her massive battle axe, which she then used to lop off the leg of a Titan at the knee before she moved on to the next one, cutting them down like humanoid trees.

"WAIT SASHA!" The Hero cried out as she charged further and further ahead on her own, until she was completely surrounded by the Titans and hidden from view. A second later all they heard was her screams as the Titans literally ripped her apart and ate her alive.

"I'LL GUT YOU ALL!" Another girl cried out as she held up her daggers, which were coated in one of the most dangerous and acidic toxins in the world. She then leapt up into the air with her incredible dexterity and buried her daggers into the chest of one of the Titans, surely killing it. Or so she thought.

Despite the holes in its chest that began to enlarge due to the toxin, the Titan simply looked down at the girl before grabbing and lifting her closer to its mighty maw.

"Wait! No please!" She cried out in fear of what was going to happen next, unable to escape as her repeated attacks seemingly did nothing to the Titan as it pushed her headfirst into its mouth.

One by one the Hero watched as the same companions he'd fought side by side with were killed, in increasingly grisly and vicious ways until only himself and their healer, Margaret, were left.

"I'LL KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!" The Hero roared as he summoned the largest amount of magical power he ever had before in his life, and channeled it through his holy sword to unleash an attack of pure light and power that carved out a path through the Titans to the one that stood above all the others.

"Come on Margaret! We can still end this!" He declared to his only remaining companion, urging his horse through the newly formed corridor between the Titans.

Though just barely, he could see the figure standing atop the Colossal Titan that must have been the one giving orders to the rest, before he was concealed behind an ever growing cloud of steam.

'If I can just kill him!' The Hero thought to himself, all of his energy and being focused on that one goal, until something he never could have foreseen happened and he suddenly found himself and horse flying through the air.

"What the-!?" He exclaimed in shock, before a massive hand came out of nowhere and snatched him up, pinning his arms to his sides as the holy sword plummeted to the earth below. The next thing he knew, the Hero found himself being raised up by the Beast Titan until he was face to face with the very person who's death he so desperately sought, the strange man in the white coat.

"Nice to meet you, you failure of a hero!" The man sneered at him with obvious contempt, seemingly unconcerned with the Hero giving him the most intense death glare he could manage. But in the face of the mastermind of so much death, all he could ask was,

"Why?" The man looked at him in confusion, as if to say 'why what?' The Hero gritted his teeth in frustration and demanded,

"Why would you kill so many people!? What is the point of so much death and suffering?!" In the face of the Hero's anger and frustration, the man only smiled as he declared,

"For the experience points of course!" For a moment the Hero's mind completely blanked at the ridiculous and nonsensical answer, before the man continued,

"I only have a few days left in this world! So until then I need to buildup as many experience points as possible! But as I expected, I truly do need to wipe out entire world's now with how high my level is!" The man then began cackling with an edge of insanity in his voice at the thought of wiping out entire world's, before he focused his attention back on him as he pulled out a container.

"Well, then again I don't need to kill EVERY single person in the world in order to get to were I need, and I'm kinda curious how you'll turn out if I Titanfy you as well, though too bad I don't have anymore special Titan serums. The Attack Titan would probably end up cause me more problems in the long run if I acquired and gave it to someone."

Despite his apparent insanity, the man was incredibly intelligent as he spent years researching the Titan serums, and modifying it to affect and Titanize all intelligent races instead of just the Eldians that originally used it. He also managed to figure out a way to distribute the Titan serum on a massive scale by converting it to a gaseous form, which people only needed to inhale a little bit before they turned. It wasn't practical to use for a single person, but with the large capsules he had developed it was possible to instantly turn entire cities into Titans.

Thankfully as one of the 'God's Successor' contestants he wasn't susceptible to Ymir's Curse, which shortened the lives of those who possessed the Nine's abilities to only thirteen years after they acquired it.

Though he couldn't understand the mad man's rambling, the Hero was unsettled about the container he had produced, before the man loaded it into some kind of contraption. The next thing he knew though, the man shot it directly at the remaining forces of the army, making them all disappear as a green cloud exploded.

"Well then, this is goodbye mister hero! Be sure to eat many of your former friends for me, ok?" Then, before the Hero could say anything more, the Beast Titan threw him directly into the cloud of green gasses.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The mad man laughed insanely as thunder roared, and every single one of the remaining Knights was Titanized alongside the Hero before they fell under the command of his Founding Titan power, and began tearing down the very same walls they had just been trying to defend.

"Only three more days!" The mad man uttered to himself excitedly, three more days until he can move on to his next world.