Griever

Prologue

Ultimecia spread her raven-black wings and floated above them. They had fought her for an unbearably long time, yet she seemed barely winded.

"The most powerful GF..." she said, "You shall...SUFFER...! HAHAHA!"

She waved one hand, trailing particles of magical light that formed into a globe she threw at their feet. From where it sank into the marble floor there rose waves of white energy, and suddenly a great beast emerged.

It was a huge, gray, lionlike beast with red horns that formed a sort of natural crown, and huge gray-feathered wings. It roared defiance and hovered before them, natural blood-red blades protruding from its elbows as its tail, tipped with a silvery steel curved blade, lashed in readiness for the fight.

It did not faze the warriors, who charged in with everything they had. It was a hard fight, but they had confidence they would win.

"The GF's true power..." came Ultimecia's voice, after they had managed to greatly wound the creature. "Allow me...to show you...! Griever! Make them bleed!"

In response, Griever crossed its powerful, gray-furred arms over its chest and roared "Shockwave Pulsar!" in a voice that sounded like three voices together.

Rings of white energy surrounded them, forming into globes, pulling them upward into that no-place the Guardian Forces drew their power from. In Griever's world, it was like the inside of a powerful ring, a circle edged in flowing purple-white energy, and an unreachable white column at the center. From the center of the column came a sphere of dark energy that exploded, washing over the warriors, leaving them wounded on a bare rock that re-formed into the real world.

They had survived. They continued the fight.

Griever flew at them, swiped at them with its great claws, but did not use its tail or the blades on its arms. Occasionally it would blow a warrior's spell into nonexistence.

Still they fought on.

In the end, Griever fell in a flash of pyrotechnic display, roaring in pain and spewing purple light. But it did not disappear. Instead it condensed, into a dark sphere such as the one from which it had arisen. It floated there a while, losing the characteristics of the Guardian Force, looking more and more like a simple sphere.

"I shall junction myself...Unto Griever!" came Ultimecia's voice. A white sphere appeared beside the black one, white energy arcs combining with purple. The two spheres approached and joined, resulting in a four-footed griffon-like creature with red claws, red-tipped wings, and Ultimecia's face. Periodically a silver streak called a Helix would join in the fray, but it did not matter. In the end it was defeated, and lightning split the creature in half. The lower half of the great griffon-like beast fell into the abyss. The other, the half with Ultimecia's face, fought on for a while before exploding in a shower of white sparks and a blast wave of white energy.

But Ultimecia was not defeated yet, and the warriors fought on...