The canopy thinned as they climbed, the jungle giving way to jagged ridges. The air turned sharp, biting at their lungs. Frost edged the rocks, and their breaths came in misty bursts. Snow sifted down between gnarled branches, soft at first, then heavier, muffling the world. Somewhere far above, the groaning sound of ice shifting on stone echoed like the rumble of a slumbering giant.
Then the ground shook.
It began as a tremor beneath their boots, then built into a violent quake. Pebbles skittered down the slope. Birds erupted from the trees in panicked flight.
A roar followed—deep, rolling, and loud enough to rattle their bones. It cascaded down the cliffs like an avalanche.
A colossal saurian burst from the heights. Its scales glittered like crystalline frost, every step cracking the ground with frozen weight. Blue-white spikes jutted from its back, glowing faintly with the cold. Steam plumed from its maw with each breath, a haze of lethal chill. Its eyes burned—not with corruption, but with wild, unstable aether.
Clive's jaw tightened. He raised his sword.
"Not corrupted," Auron said, voice grim, "but worse. It's natural… and it's hungry."
The saurian roared again, a concussive blast that knocked loose snow from the cliffs. The shockwave hammered into them, forcing even Auron back a step.
"Spread out!" Clive barked. Flame ignited along his blade, Ifrit's fire roaring to life. He charged to meet the beast head-on. Steel and flame clashed with frost and scale, the impact ringing like iron struck against stone.
---
The saurian lashed its tail in a wide arc. The shockwave cracked the frozen ground, sending Serah sprawling with a cry. "Ahhh—!" Mog yelped as they rolled together before snapping into weapon form.
"Paradigm shift, kupo!"
Serah caught the bowsword in her hands and spun into a stance, her blade glowing with energy. She struck at the saurian's forelimb, sparks of light scattering across its frost-armored scales.
Vivi dashed to the flank, staff already raised. "Fire—!" The spell erupted instantly, thanks to the paradigm's flow. Flames engulfed the saurian's side—but its scales shimmered blue, absorbing the heat. Smoke hissed off harmlessly.
"It's resisting!" Vivi shouted in frustration.
"Then change your element!" Lunafreya's voice rang out, her hands already glowing with silver light. "Lightning!"
Vivi obeyed. Thunder cracked, a jagged bolt lancing into the saurian's chest. It shrieked, staggering back, frost steaming off its hide. But then its scales shifted again, glowing faint red. The next arc of lightning slid off harmlessly.
"Adaptive," Auron growled. He swung his great sword, meeting the saurian's counterstrike. Its claws crashed down, but the shimmering aura around him absorbed the worst of the blow, slowing the force as though time itself dulled the strike. "Every element it takes in, it turns to armor."
---
The saurian inhaled sharply, its chest swelling. Then it exhaled—a cone of frost so cold it froze the very air into jagged shards. Vivi staggered, ice climbing his limbs. Serah gasped as her legs stiffened, frost locking her in place.
"Not while I'm here!" Aerith cried.
Her staff flared, a rush of green light bursting outward. Esuna swept across them, shattering the frost in glittering shards. A second wave followed—Cura bathing their wounds in warm light, then Regen wrapping them in a soft glow that steadily knitted bone and flesh even as they fought.
The sudden warmth rushed through them like a second breath. Serah steadied, grinning. "Thanks, Aerith!"
Clive pressed forward, his blade burning brighter. "Keep us standing, Aerith!"
"I will!" she called back.
---
The saurian swung its tail again. Auron planted his feet, intercepting with his blade. The ground cracked beneath him, but he held firm, his aura shielding Serah and Vivi from the shockwave.
Lunafreya lifted her hands, summoning a torrent of water and light that crashed against the saurian's flank, forcing it to turn.
Clive leapt in, Ifrit's fire carving a blazing arc across its chest. The beast roared, stumbling back.
Vivi unleashed a flurry of spells, alternating lightning and blizzard to force the saurian to adapt too quickly, trying to keep it off balance. Serah slashed in brilliant arcs, Mog's bowsword humming with paradigm power.
Still, the creature's sheer force was crushing. Every strike it landed sent tremors through the ground. Its roar disrupted spellcasting, shattering Luna's incantation mid-word. Its frost breath nearly swept Vivi from the field entirely, only Aerith's barrier saving him at the last instant.
Aerith was everywhere at once. Protectra shimmered across their forms, blunting the saurian's blows. Shellra dampened its frost blasts. Every strike they endured was answered with her healing—her staff glowing like a beacon in the storm. And when there was a moment, she turned her staff skyward, white light gathering before crashing down in a burst of Holy that seared into the saurian's hide.
Her duality was seamless—healer and attacker both.
Serah glanced at her between swings, awe dawning on her face. "She's… incredible…"
---
The fight dragged long. Every time they thought they had it cornered, the saurian adapted again. Fire, frost, lightning—it turned each element into defense. Serah's paradigm shifts gave them fleeting windows of advantage, but the creature's raw resilience nearly broke their line more than once.
Again and again, it seemed they would fall. Vivi nearly collapsed under a tail maelstrom, only for Aerith's Regen to pull him back from the edge. Clive staggered under the weight of a claw strike, and Aerith's Cura burned bright, sealing the wound before he could falter.
"Stay together!" she urged, voice carrying through the frost. "It can't break all of us if we hold!"
---
At last, the tide turned.
Clive and Auron charged side by side, fire and warded steel blazing. Their blades struck in tandem, carving deep into the saurian's chest. The beast roared in pain.
"Now!" Serah cried. She and Mog leapt, driving the bowsword down in a radiant slash.
Vivi raised his staff, thunderstorm aether swirling above. He unleashed it in a crackling storm, lightning lancing down again and again.
Aerith lifted her staff high. White light burst outward, Holy striking the saurian in the wound Clive and Auron had carved.
The beast staggered. Its roar split the air one last time before it collapsed, shaking the ground as its breath rattled out in silence.
---
The party stood panting, their cloaks rimmed with frost, steam rising off their blades.
Clive lowered his sword slowly, the fire guttering out. "That… was no ordinary monster."
Aerith's staff trembled in her hands. She looked to Lunafreya, her voice quiet but steady. "That was just a beast. In Eorzea, Noctis and the others fought something worse. A Chaos agent. We almost died—and that was only the weakest of them."
The words froze them more deeply than the cold.
Serah shivered, hugging Mog close. Vivi's wide eyes brimmed with dread. Auron's jaw clenched, his silence heavier than words. Clive's gaze hardened, though doubt flickered beneath his resolve.
Luna placed a hand over her heart, her voice soft but heavy. "So strong… and yet still only the beginning."
They stood in silence, breath misting in the frozen air, the truth of Aerith's words settling into their bones.
Some shuddered. Some felt excitement stir. But all knew the truth: greater storms waited ahead.
Clive lifted his head, turning to the glacial horizon. His voice cut through the howling wind.
"Then we grow stronger. Whatever Chaos brings, we won't falter."
The wind carried their resolve across the peaks of the Paramina Rift as they pressed onward—toward Mt. Bur-Omisace, and the trials waiting there.