Elemas

by Dab607

Story of Lee and his many adventures in the strange world of Elemas.

CHAPTER 1: Discovery

"Get the fuck out of my way! Some people actually have to get to places on time." Some rude black haired women said while pushing past me. She had on what looked like a black leather tight mini-skirt and a blue t-shirt. But I didn't care. Anyone who is that rude doesn't deserve to be in my life. I continued walking down the crowded streets of New York. I was here visiting the city because it had been some time since I had last been there. I was right in Times Square. I was here with two of my friends and we were playing the ultimate game of Hide and Seek. It had been about an hour since I last saw either of them. It was just about sun down and I missed the islands I once lived in. At this time there would have been a group of tourists waiting for the green flash. Mention it over here and you look like you're a psychotic lunatic. Instead of looking at the waves crashing upon the rocks at a deserted beach. I was now stuck in the ultimate concrete jungle. I stopped walking and decided to try and see the green flash that I missed so much. I began counting down in my head. 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2... The green flash seemed to be way too close when all of a sudden I was in the air. The concrete jungle was shrinking beneath me. Getting smaller and smaller until I could no longer see it. But the strange part was that the higher I went the more at peace I felt. Was I dying? Was I dead... I closed my eyes and thought this was just a bad dream.

When I opened my eyes I was in a forest. The grass was wet with recent rainfall. I sat myself up and was disgusted at the stains on my now ruined shirt. I started to wonder how long I was out for. I finally found enough strength to bring myself to my feet. I staggered a little because I felt dizzy. Whatever had happened I felt drained. I felt like the life was ripped from my body. My whole body hurt and my head was throbbing with pain. The sun had to be setting because the forest was getting darker by the second. The darkness swept in like a virus. It was a cold kind of darkness. Once it had covered me I was freezing. Then I saw a light. It crackled and danced so I assumed it was a fire and fire meant warmth. I started to walk towards the fire. While I was walking I realized something. Someone had to have started the fire and they might be hostel towards outsiders. I continued to walk. I started to hear voices from the direction of the fire.

"She should be here already. What's taking her human ass so fucking long?" I walked through the bushes and ended up on the south side of the circle. The fire sat in the center of the clearing and four small human looking creatures that were sitting around the fire I had seen.

"Who the fuck are you?" said the thing from the south.

"My name is Lee and I'm from New York...Technically."

"He's human which means that she will have to wait till the next one to return home." The north one said.

"We are the sprites of the forest. He must be the one in the prophecy to help Yuki out. Lee you are now part of this world. So we'll teach you everything you need to know." The east sprite said. He took a crystal out of his pocket and threw it at my head. When it hit, it dug into my head filling my thoughts and memory with pictures and instructions of everything that had happened up to this point in time. I quickly blanked out.

When I awoke it was about mid-night. I could tell by where the moon was positioned. The Sprites had left and there was a note. It read "Lee now you know what you must do and use this crystal if you run into trouble. You'll know how to use it when the time comes..."

"Those bastards." I thought to myself. They did have the decency to leave the fire going so I sat by the fire curious as to how the crystal would work. I played with it. Examining every side looking for something that would give how to use it away. Well that would be a problem if I run into any of the creatures I had just learned about through the painful visions I had received earlier. I thought about it and decided to wait here for Yuki. They waited here for her so this place must be ideal. She would be using the green flash to travel. If I had only realized the true power of the green flash I might have avoided it while I was in New York. Now comes the boring part, The Waiting Game.

About two hours later I got fed up with waiting and decided to explore a little. I left the warmth of the fire and headed south. I was listening to every sound that the forest made. I had to keep on my toes and be alert if I wanted to survive. The wind gently blew through the trees causing the leaves to rustle. This made me very paranoid. I heard footsteps coming from behind me so I whipped around and saw a chipmunk. I was very relieved until the chipmunk looked at me and started to change. Its body grew upright and resembled that of a werewolf. However it couldn't be considered a werewolf so I labeled it as a Werechipmunk. I pulled the bluish crystal out of my pocket and squeezed it hard, yet nothing happened.

"Shit." I thought to myself. I started to run back to the fire but it quickly caught up and passed me then slashed at me. I jumped back and it ended up slashing my shirt. I now took off my shirt for it would no longer do me any good in three separate pieces. So there I was alone with no shirt, standing in front of a terrible creature and a crackling fire behind it. I knew what was coming up. I took the crystal back out and threw it at the monster. The crystal hit it in the head causing the werechipmunk to topple over backwards into the fire. It howled a painful screech. I fell to my knees covering my ears to try and block the sound. Then it just stopped. It echoed on in my head. That will be one noise that I would never be able to forget. I brought myself back up to my feet. I felt like someone bashed my skull in with a sledgehammer. I went to the fire to warm up because I was freezing now. It had suddenly gotten colder since my shirt was sliced. I decided not to go find the pieces due to the fact I would have had to leave the warm fire.

I dozed off for what I guessed to be three hours. When I awoke the fire was out. The forest was virtually pitch black. I could barely even see my hands in front of my face. I then heard a low growl come from the north of where I was laying down. I quickly sat up and recognized the growl. It was that of a werechipmunk. Then I heard several others. From what I could hear it sounded like there was at least three of the beasts. I had a hard enough time with one of them. I had no idea how I would survive three of them at once. I had concluded that the one I killed must have been the scout. When it died it sent a message to the pack telling them where I was. "Damn!" I thought, "These creatures are crafty." I then started to look for the crystal. I had forgotten all about it. It was under the charred skin of the beast I had killed. It reeked of death and burned skin. When I finally picked up the crystal it was charred black. It also had several cracks in the top of it. I took one of the rocks that was placed around the fire to contain it and smashed the top of the crystal four times and then it shattered. All the pieces hit the ground and I could barely hear them hit the stone over the constantly growing roaring. Then a light shown from the shards and they started to form a shape. When the light dissipated I could see that the crystal shards were gone and on the ground in front of me lay a kusari-gama. It was like a shortened version of a scythe and it was connected to a chain. It allowed the sickle to be a long-ranged weapon as well as a short-ranged one. Now the problem was I didn't know how to use it with the chain. The weapon itself didn't present a problem but using it to it's full potential would be a problem. The roars sounded really close. I looked around. I didn't see them yet but it sounded like they were right here with me. I turned around again to check for them and there were three of them. They all looked identical. I picked up the sickle and chain. I grasped the sickle's handle and decided that this would be a close-range fight. The beast on the left charged at me. I ducked and rolled to the right. While mid-roll I slashed the werechipmunk's left leg. The sickle went through the beast's leg as if it were butter. The beast toppled over and made a screeching noise. I quickly got back on my feet and took the sickle to its neck and sliced the beast's head off. This way I wouldn't have to listen to the awful noise it makes when it's about to die. The other two were just standing there watching as if they used their comrade's life to test me.

"Dammit! These creatures really are crafty." I thought to myself. Then one of the two that were left moved forward. It inched its way over very slowly. It waited for me to attack. While it moved closer I couldn't help but notice that it was almost dawn. How long was I asleep for, I couldn't know. I thought it had been only three hours but it must have been longer than that. I started to become relaxed but quickly regained my composure. I'd almost forgotten about the situation I'm in. I grabbed the chain and decided to try it out. I started to swing the sickle over my head. It felt like I had done this before. It must have been that crystal that the sprite threw into my head. It must have given me the skills I needed to survive. Then that would mean I would have to choose a class when Yuki arrives and she would have to approve of it. But that is best left for later. I threw out the sickle at the creature's neck. It sliced threw it like it was thin air. Once the werechipmunks head fell to the floor I pulled the chain to retract the sickle and while it flew threw the air it made a whistling noise, as if it were cutting the air. With the sickle back in my hand I set my sights on the last beast.

It started to back away slowly. When all of a sudden a sword appeared above it's head and cut it in half going diagonally right. When both halves hit the ground a woman stood there. It took me a second to recognize her. She was the woman that pushed passed me in the city.

"You were she. That bitch." I said.

"Yes and I'm sorry but I was in a rush. I'm also sorry for getting you mixed up in all of this. When I first saw you I saw that potential you had. I thought that you were perfect to be my bodyguard."

"Your lucky I don't hate you now, but alas I will guard you. Three things first, what am I protecting you from? How do I choose a class? And how old are you?"

"Well I'm 18 years old. Your just protecting me from everything that tries to kill me. As for your class it's up to you. You start off simple and then through power crystals your class will be upgraded. I would choose a class that best fits your personality and elemental tolerance."

"Elemental tolerance?" I asked.

"Elemental tolerance is basically what element pertains within the energies inside of you. Mine is ice. So my class is an ice mage. I can focus on healing mostly but I do know some attack magic. My weapon the Koori-kouhi is infused with my energies of ice. Basically choose what element is in you and infuse your weapon with it."

"I want to end up as an elemental. So I want to become a...How do I know what element power is within me?"

"I can tell using the spell I learned from my mother." She grabbed some leaves and threw them around me and said "Spirits of this world show him what powers are within him!" The leaves around me turned to dirt and rocks broke through the earth right under me. I jumped out of the circle right before the ground in the circle gave way and left a giant hole.

"I assume this means I have some earth energies within me. Then I choose my class to be an earth thief."

"Very well I approve of your choice." Then everything vanished. I was in a pitch-black room. When all of a sudden a crystal engulfed me. I pounded on the walls trying to get out but to no success. Then I felt my body change and I screamed in pain. I closed my eyes and wished all this never had happened. When I reopened my eyes and I was standing in front of Yuki, and I looked at my clothes for they had changed. I know had on brown pants, a green shirt, and a brown sash and cloak. I now resembled what one may call a thief.

"Lee you are now officially part of this world. The world of Elemas."

"So why do all of a sudden I know how to use my powers?"

"When you first choose a class you gain the basic knowledge of that class's power. The same goes for you element. Once you start to become more powerful you'll be able to learn and create your own spells and techniques."

"Well now where are we heading first Yuki?"

"We will be going to the earth spirits shrine. The spirit's name is Terra. Terra is our first stop upon the elemental shrines."

"Sounds good to me. You lead and I'll protect." We started to head of to the north. While we were walking I couldn't help but to notice that Yuki's clothes had changed since the city. She now wore white robes befitting a mage. She looked like a princess. I didn't want to ask her for fear of it would look like I'm hitting on her. But the more I thought about it the less it bothered me. I wouldn't mine asking her out. She was beautiful. Her long black hair came down to about her mid back. It looked like it had been straightened. I then moved form her hair to her eyes. Her eyes were as blue as sapphires. Her body was perfect. Her curves were perfect. Well at least I think so. Her robes might be giving her more curves than she actually had. Yet I wonder...

We continued to walk towards the Shrine of Terra. Yuki never told me how far it was, but I assumed since we were in a forest that it was close. I also wondered what could an earth spirit look like. I wondered what physical form it would take.

"Why are we going to the earth shrine first and how far is it?"

"We are going to Terra first because we are trying to make you stronger before leaving the forest. The shrine is about 15 miles from where we were so about five to six hours before we get there. Terra will power you up with its earth elemental powers. That will make you better and can protect me from stronger opponents." I walked silently behind her waiting for any creatures or beasts to attack. I wanted to tryout my sickle again. I renamed my kusari-gama, Tsuchi-Karite, or The Earth-Reaper.

CHAPTER 2: Shrine

We continued to walk for another three hours. It was an eerily quiet walk. We decided to take a rest at this lake we found. It had fresh water running through it. The best way to describe it would be to call it an oasis among the trees. I decided to take a dip and started to take my cloak and shirt off. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw Yuki staring at me. I think she was checking me out. But women weren't a strong point of mine. I dove into the water and was instantly surprised by how deep it was. It had to be at least 40-55 feet deep. The only thing I could think about was how strange this world was compared to mine. And Yuki. Yuki took her cloak off and laid it on the ground and then laid upon it. Underneath her cloak was a white t-shirt. I resurfaced at the middle of the lake. I looked over towards her and noticed that the robes and cloak had not given her the curves I saw. They were all hers. I then thought to myself "There lay before me a goddess." I started to think about what it would be like dating her. Then through the trees appeared three men. They were dressed like I had been moments earlier, in thieves' clothes. One of them was bald and about 6 feet tall. He had a scar on his cheek. It almost looked like it was a branded mark. The other two had masks on so I assumed they were the lackeys.

"Get up!" The large one said to Yuki. She quickly followed the order. She grabbed her cloak and the big one said, "Nope. You're not going to need it for much longer." He grabbed her by the arm and forced her lips to his. I was treading right under the surface. I could see everything that was going on. The thieves have yet to notice me. I quickly pulled the tsuchi-karite out of the pouch in my back pocket. I only had one shot at this if I messed up we would be killed. Meanwhile the large thief was groping Yuki's breasts. He squeezed her tits and I was furious had this point. I jumped out of the water and threw the TK (tsuchi-karite) at the thief with the mask that had been examining my clothes. The TK hit him right in the heart and he instantly died. I had no intention of making the lackeys suffer... much.

"Who the hell are you!" The large one bellowed.

"My name is Lee. And this is my blade the Tsuchi-Karite." I pulled the chain and caught the handle with my right hand. My back was turned to them because if I saw his hands on her I would kill him in ways that would give Yuki nightmares for the rest of her life. "I am not from here and was given the task of protecting that girl you have there." I could hear Yuki crying. She had been for some time now. But I couldn't blame her after what he did. Her screams still ring in my head to this day

"Kill this bastard." The large on said to his lackey. The lackey charged at me with a katana. I threw the chain end of the TK at his neck and it wrapped around it perfectly. I pulled the chain and the lackey's head came clean off. His body hit the floor before his head did. I now had killed two men. The power had gone to my head at this point.

"What's your name?" I asked the large thief while turning around to look at him. "What's your name? I won't ask a third time." He quickly pushed Yuki in my direction and took off into the forest. I put the TK into the ground and focused my energies into it. "Rock Coffin!" We then herd a scream followed by immediate silence. I got dressed and helped Yuki put her cloak back on. She threw her arms around me and cried into my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her and reassured her that I would never allow that to happen ever again. She then looked up into my eyes and kissed me. She caught me by surprise. After the initial shock of her actions I then kissed her back. I then pulled my head back and said, "We should get going. I'm not strong enough to protect you yet. Once I'm capable of protecting you I'll pick up where we left off. Deal?"

"I don't want you to die because of me. If you're always protecting me then you'll die and I don't want to lose you. I'm in love with you." Those words struck me in a way I had never thought possible. I put my arms around her again and kissed her. The passion between this kiss was a force to reckon with.

"I think I'm in love with you too. Still we unfortunately have to keep moving before anything else shows up."

"Agreed. Follow me." We then left the little oasis of hell and walked off into the direction that the large thief had run to. We then came across his body it was smashed flat between two big rocks that appeared form under the ground. I quickly covered Yuki's eyes to prevent her from seeing anymore of it. The stench of death lingered on for about two miles. We walked and made it about 7 more miles. We only had about 4 miles to go and we could easily get there within two hours. Yuki's stomach started to growl.

"That's funny because I'm hungry too. I'll go and find us some food. You stay here and try to start a fire. It's going to be okay this time I promise." She nodded but kept silent. I started to become a little worried because if she got sick there was no way that I would be able to help her. I walked off to the south. About ten minutes later I found some deer. I pulled out the TK and threw it at a young female deer. I killed it instantly. I picked it up and carried it back to the camp. Yuki had a fire going, a spit set up, and a tent set up. "Damn! You're good at this camping thing."

"I know how to survive on my own. I've been alone my whole life. I was an orphan and was raised by the forest's sprites. It was a harsh life so this is actually pretty easy for me." I prepared the meal and cooked it for her.

About a two hours later we were finished eating and cleaned up after the meal. We got ourselves ready for bed. The tent was a size too small for two people but I think Yuki had planned it to be that way. I stripped down to nothing but my boxers, which had changed with the wardrobes. They were now a green that resembled the color of the leaves in the summertime. I laid myself down in the tent using my sash as a pillow and my cloak as a blanket. I started to doze off when all of a sudden the tent door opened. I quickly grabbed the TK and held it to the neck of the intruder.

"It's only me Lee." Yuki quickly said. I lowered my arm and put the weapon away.

"Sorry I get paranoid while I sleep." She said it was okay. I then noticed that she was wearing nothing but a bra and thong. I quickly grew nervous. I had no idea how to react when all of a sudden Yuki climbed on top of me and kissed me again. "Yuki what are you doing?"

"I want to be with you. I love you and wish to give myself to you."

"Well you were almost raped and killed tonight. I think you're not in the right state of mind to be making this kind of decis-" She then started to grind her hips with mine.

"You seem to like this. I can feel you with my pussy. I just want you inside of me please give me that feeling." She pulled me cock out of my boxers. "I'm wet from just thinking about you inside me." She then took my cock and put it in her pussy. She let a moan out. I was shocked at how tight she was. The only logical answer was that she was a virgin. The night went on and little sleep was had.

The next morning I woke up and looked at Yuki. She was already awake and smiling at me. "Last night was the best night of my life." She said. "I didn't want to tell you but I was a virgin."

"Let's just get ready. We have a long day ahead of us. I'm sorry if I sound rude but I don't know what problems we'll run into today and I don't know if I'll be able to handle them. I fell in love with you and if I lose you then I won't be able to forgive myself."

"Well let's go then." Yuki said while obviously holding back tears. We both got dressed and headed of towards the shrine. About an hour and a half later we reached the entrance to the shrine. It was a cave with ancient symbols and text carved into the stone around the opening. Yuki said, "This is Terra's shrine. Terra will take the form of a creature and in order to be blessed with his powers you must first slay the beast." I understood but I was scared of the creature's it might become. Yuki grabbed and held on to my arm. We walked into the cave at the same time. The entrance behind us sealed shut and a ring of candles lit up. They formed a circle around an arena. We then stepped into the arena.

"You wish to challenge me for my blessings?" A voice that boomed with such force that it almost hurt.

"Yes we do." Yuki responded. Then a green light appeared before us. It twisted and bent as if being molded into something. I suddenly recognized what I saw.

"Yuki duck!" I pushed her out of the way. An axe came down to where Yuki was previously standing. It cut my right arm. My wound suddenly started to bleed at an alarming pace. Then about three seconds later, I lost all feeling and control in my right arm. Yuki looked at my arm and said, "I know healing spells." She started this weird incantation and my arm was suddenly healed. I was about to thank her when the axe started to strike at me. I jumped back and pulled out the TK. I saw the beast's eyes. It was a miniature. I laughed because I thought it would be more challenging then this. I started to swing the TK and the Minotaur took a step closer and I threw the blade at it. The Minotaur grabbed it and pulled me to him.

"Oh shit!" I said. He had me by my right arm and lifted me off the ground. He lifted me up with his left arm while he raised his axe in the other. He pulled his arm back and swung his axe at me. Yuki quickly cut his arm off with her sword. I then cut off the left arm that was holding me up. I dropped to the floor and quickly jumped to my feet and slashed at the Minotaur's neck. Its head was attached by the spinal cord. Its head was almost completely off at this point. Yuki cut the spinal cord and the head hit the ground and then sunk into the earth.

"Congratulations. You have past the test of strength and are now worthy of my blessings. The one who wishes to be blessed please step into the circle." A green circle of ancient symbols appeared before us. I took a step into the circle. I was instantly transported to the pitch-black room again. Instead of a crystal, a giant green light engulfed me. My whole body started to scream in pain and I found that I was screaming too. The pain felt like I was being crushed to death by boulders. I then heard a voice saying, "Do not shun the powers of earth. Let it flow through you and it will do your bidding." I stopped screaming and opened my mind up.

"Lee, are you okay?" Yuki said. I was lying on the ground next to the body of the Minotaur. Yuki was kneeling beside me and a sigh of relief escaped from her mouth when I sat up. My head started to hurt again but with each throb of pain I learned a little more about earth magic and techniques. I started to get up onto my feet. I staggered a little because my head was still in pain. The pain then started to gradually disappear. I could hear my own thoughts once again. I looked over to Yuki and I could see the smile she had on her face.

"I'm okay. It just hurt my head. It was worth it though. Watch this." I lifted my arm and then a rock broke through the surface of the earth and came to me. "I think I now have about 25 mastery over the earth element. I can feel its power flowing through me. Well anyways where are we off to now?"

"We're going to go visit the water shrine. The goddess Aquaria will take both of us to the next level. Then when we are through with that quest we'll go to the ice shrine. I don't know anything about the ice shrine other then the fact that it is on an island. The island, from what I hear, is a frozen wasteland."

"That sounds good enough to me. By the way are there any other destined ones I need to know about?" I asked. Yuki looked at the ground then back into my eyes. I could see that there was heaviness in her heart.

"There are at least three others in the world right now. One is of fire, another is of wind, and the other is of lightning. If the myth about the destined ones, that would be us, is true then a sixth one will reveal itself when the five of us meet."

"Do you know where any of the destined one's are? Or for that matter what we're destined to do?"

"We are destined to stop the dark element master. His name is unknown but everyone refers to him as The Nightmare. The destined one's will face him and triumph freeing this land once and for all. As for the other destined ones, I only know where one is."

"Well we have to go find them to fulfill our destiny." I looked deeper into Yuki's eyes and I could tell that she was hiding something. "Yuki, you're not telling me everything I need to know."

"The destined one of Fire is my sister Pyra."

"Why is that worth hidi-"

"It is said that she will betray the destined one of ice and take her love away from her... Which would be you?"

"You guys sure make in-depth prophecies. Why did you have to choose me for all of this? What did I ever do to you?"

"I saw that you were the one. I just don't want to lose you to my sister Pyra. I want you all to myself."

"That's understandable but I will decide for myself who I will love and who I will hate. Now we have to recruit your sister before it's too late and this Nightmare fellow figures out everything. That is to say if he hasn't figured it out already."

"He knows nothing of the prophecy. He does kill anyone that could pose a threat to him."

"Well then we need to hurry." I turned and started to leave the cave. I then turned around and said "You have to lead because I have no idea where I'm heading."

"Pyra lives to the west, by a volcano. I haven't spoken to her since she ran away. She was only 6 years old when she left the sprites and me. I doubt if she'll remember me or the prophecy."

"Still we have to try. Now please lead the way." She started to walk towards the entrance and I followed her. She then started to mention some details of the journey. We had about a 5-day walk ahead of us. That was without any confrontations. We headed off towards the setting sun. I couldn't help but wonder the whole time. What would happen next? Only thing I was sure of was that things would get more difficult before getting any easier. We then walked off into the sunset.

CHAPTER 3: Failure

Five days had passed since we first left the shrine of Terra. There were no enemies or confrontations of any kind. That is what got me really paranoid. We arrived at the volcano about three in the afternoon. Yuki was relatively quiet since she mentioned the whole prophecy about her sister and I. I wished that there was something I could do for her but I had no idea what to say or do. We decided to camp at the base of the volcano for the night and hike it tomorrow. I wondered if Pyra would remember her own sister, or if this was a complete waste of time. Then I couldn't help but think about everyone else we had to find. What would they be like?

"Yuki what is your sister like?" I asked without thinking.

She got real upset and replied, "You haven't even met her and your already fantasizing about her."

I moved in behind Yuki and waited for her to turn around. When she finally did I caught her by surprise and hugged her tight. I then looked down into her eyes and pushed my lips to hers. I wanted to show her that I did care about her a lot. I just wanted her to see that I truly did care. Nightfall came around seven. I sat cuddled next to Yuki as we watched the sunset. I looked into it and wondered if there was a green flash in this world.

"Don't look for the flash. You'll end up back on earth. I wouldn't want to have to find you again." I quickly focused my eyes elsewhere. I didn't want to go back home. Not yet at least. Then the thought occurred, how much time had passed on earth.

"Yuki how long are the days here in earth time?" I asked.

"A day here is so short on earth that I don't even know. Time is almost standing still over there. This world has many secrets connecting it to earth that even I have yet to learn. While we are talking I have to confess I lied to you about something."

"What was it?" I asked hoping it to be something stupid and not be anything that would make this moment awkward.

"I'm not an ice mage. I'm an Ice Cleric. I'm strictly a healer. I only know one offensive spell and all it does is bind the opponent in ice." I looked at her and held back laughter.

"That's it. I thought it was going to be something big. It doesn't matter what your powers are. As long as I am able to protect you it won't matter." I could feel her tears as they fell on my arm. We fell asleep only moments later.

The ground started to shake with such force we woke up instantly and jumped to our feet. I looked up towards the volcano. It was about to erupt. I also noticed that it was about 5 in the morning. Sunrise would be in about an hour and a half.

"Yuki, we have to leave now!" She grabbed my hand and started to charge up the volcano. "This isn't what I meant." She dragged me towards the lava and said,

"Don't worry I have ice powers remember." She charged her element energies into her hand and it started to glow. She then released a burst of ice at the lava. It instantly turned to stone and fell down the side of the volcano.

"Yeah. Now instead of lava we have a rock slide instead." I lifted my foot and slammed it into the volcano. This caused a hole where my foot impacted. The rocks fell into the hole instead of crushing Yuki and me. I was relieved but only for a moment. I then instantly looked up and saw a girl standing on the top of the volcano. She jumped into the air and landed about 10 feet behind us. I whipped around while slightly pushing Yuki behind me.

The girl must be Pyra. She had fiery red hair and a bright red skintight suit on. From what I could see that was all she had on. Her chest seemed to be trying to break out form the skintight prison. I then quickly regained my focus because I had just noticed that I had been staring at her.

"Well that seemed to wake my baby sister up."

"So Pyra you do remember me. What about our destiny and the prophecy?" Yuki asked in response.

"I gave up on that a long time ago. But maybe a little fight might restore my confidence in it." Pyra said while shifting her eyes over to me.

"Fuck!" I said not realizing that I had said it out loud. I quickly followed it up with "Fine you want to fight then let's fight. Yuki stays out of this. That is my only condition."

"Fair enough." Pyra said. She then charged while taking out tiny blades. The actual metal blade was about 8 inches. She had three of them all together. They must have been sheathed and attached to a holder somewhere on her back. She pulled two of the blades out. She had one for each hand. I then pulled out the TK and blocked the in coming strike from her left blade. She then struck at me with her right blade. I then used the chain to wrap around her right forearm and deflected her strike. That caused her to stumble forward to the left and she pulled out the third blade and put it into her mouth. She held onto it with her teeth. The blade was pointing towards the right side. That was now the dangerous side. As long as I stayed to the left I should be fine. She stopped attacking and just stared at me. Then I started to feel an increase in the temperature. She was making the temperature go up. This was bad. If she made it to hot I would pass out from heat exhaustion. I had to end this fast. I started to charge my earth element into the TK. It started to glow with a green light. I then threw it into the ground and it went straight through the ground. It cut the earth like butter and I was using the chain to control the blade within the earth. I was using the soil and minerals within the ground to make the chain much longer then it was. I then made it arise right by Pyra's left foot. She just stared at me and kept raising the temperature. She hadn't noticed where the TK had gone. She was just focusing on the spell and nothing else. My vision then started to blur. I had only one shot at this. I then yanked the chain back and it cut Pyra's anchilies tendon on her left foot. She collapsed and screamed in pain. It all of a sudden got much cooler. I then put the TK away and ran over to see if Pyra was all right.

"Yuki. You can heal her right?" I asked.

"I don't know. That is a very deep cut."

"I didn't mean to do that much damage. I was only trying to slow her down not immobilize her." Yuki started on her healing spells and I decided to go for a walk to clear my head. I honestly hadn't meant to do that. I just wanted her to fall over and break the spell. The power really had gone to my head. I couldn't control myself. Now I would be putting Yuki's life in danger, if she's around me and I lose control again what's stopping me from killing her. I decided that I wasn't yet ready for everything. I was weak and couldn't control my own power. The only option at this point would be to go off on my own. The two girls were capable of taking care of themselves. I decided that I would go back and give my goodbyes and then leave. I started to walk back to the area I had left Yuki in. She was kneeling by her sister who had passed out from the loss of blood.

"Is she going to be okay?" I asked. I really hoped that Pyra was ok because I didn't want her never being able to walk again on my mind.

"She will be fine in a day or two. I think you might have over done it." Yuki said.

"I know. I lost control and now I'm ready to pay the price. I'm leaving. I'm going back to Earth."

"Wha-?! Why? Because you fought and over did it?"

"I'm too weak for this place. Plus whenever I fight I seem to lose control and the power goes straight to my head. If we were ever under extreme circumstances I might end up killing one of the destined ones. I couldn't live with myself if I ended up killing you. This is not a choice. It's a decision I'm leaving at the next flash, which will be in about 10 minutes. I don't want you to try and stop me." She ran up to me and threw her arms around me. She then moved her head towards mine looking for a kiss. I just turned my head to the left hoping she would get the message. Her arms fell to her sides. She started to sob. I couldn't watch her or else I would have started to cry. I wrapped my arms around her. I slid my arms down her slender body's back. I stopped right above her ass. I slowly unsheathed her sword with my right hand while distracting her by sliding my left hand across her ass. Once the sword was completely unsheathed I slammed the hilt of the sword into the back of Yuki's neck. She then fell out of my arms onto the ground. I had knocked her out so she wouldn't try to stop me. I then picked Yuki up and laid her right next to Pyra who was still sleeping. I re-sheathed Yuki's sword. I then walked towards the base of the volcano where we had originally set up camp last night. I then looked up and waited for the green flash. My heart was heavier then it had ever been and tears filled my eyes faster than a waterfall. About five minutes later the flash occurred and I was in the air floating above a shrinking land of Elemas.

I awoke in New York. I had people staring at me. I then realized that I was still wearing the robes of an earth thief. I figured maybe if I pretended I was a street performer I might get these people to stop staring. All of a sudden someone wearing dark blue robes came up to me and grabbed my arm. I couldn't see their face because it was covered with a hood. They lifted my right arm and said, "Return!" I was then floating again. I couldn't breathe and passed out from the lack of oxygen.

When I awoke I was in a completely black room. I then sat myself up and tried to figure out where I was. Then the blue robed figure showed up behind me and said, "You can't return to the real world yet." I listened to the voice. It sounded female. It then removed the hood and it was a girl no older then I was. "You can't just show up on Earth like that again. Do you know how many problems that causes for us destined ones?" She had light blue eyes that sparkled brightly in the pitch-black void we were in. She had long blue hair that almost reached the ground.

"Well why not? You all were just fine until I showed up."

"You are one of the destined ones and so am I. I am the destined one of water. I am Zarya."

"Am I the only fucking destined guy? We got Yuki of ice, Pyra of fire, and now Zarya of water. Is lightning going to be named Raika?"

"No the destined one of lightning is a male who is constantly on the move. But that is not the reason I pulled you from Earth. I assume Yuki taught you the basics. And you've already been to Terra's shrine right?"

"Yeah. How did you kno-?"

"Well I'm going to teach you self control. That's why I pulled you to this world. This is the void between Earth and Elemas. Time is nothing here. A million years could pass in here and only a minute would pass on Earth."

"Well if you can teach me self-control I wouldn't have to leave, and I could go back to Yuki. Please teach me your ways. By the way my name is Lee, the thief of Earth and this is my blade, The Tsuchi-Karite." I pulled it out and quickly re-sheathed it.

"Well as you know my name is Zarya, and I am a tactician of water. My blade is never shown unless needed in a battle. Let's begin your training. First you must learn that the power doesn't control you, but you control power." We trained for three years void time.

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"Well your finally ready to go back to Elemas. The great thing is it will be like you never left. Only about 2 days have past since we started training. That is the glory of the Void." Zarya said. She was now a petit girl at my height. Her white skin rivaled mine. Plus her tits had to be at least a d cup, but being sexually repressed for what was essentially three years has a way to make any man go crazy.

"Well I feel ready to go back. You're going to be our tactician right? I will follow you to hell and back if need be." I hadn't realized that I had just felt feelings for Zarya. Maybe it was just lust. Or maybe I had just felt lust towards Yuki. Either way things were about to get a lot more interesting real soon. Zarya raised her arm and we were both instantly transported to a lake that looked very familiar. I looked around and saw two dead bodies. They were the thieves from before. Zarya had brought us back to the little oasis of hell. I walked over to the water. I looked over into the water and saw my reflection. My hair had grown. It now was long enough to cover my eyes. I took out the TK and started to groom myself. Using the lake as a mirror. It took me about 15 minutes to finish shaving and cutting my hair. I now looked a little more respectable. I had learned much in the three years I was away. The weirdest part was that I had not aged at all. Only my hair and nails grew. I then looked towards Zarya and she nodded. I then stood myself up from the kneeling position I had been in. I put the TK away and followed Zarya into the surrounding forest. I looked into the distance and saw the volcano. I had forgotten how big it actually had been. Its size was equivalent to the size of Mt Fuji in Japan. The difference between last time I had walked this path and now was that I took a break at night. Zarya hadn't let us rest since we first got back. She had us walking for three days straight without food. And since she was a water elemental we never had to worry about being thirsty. She had me keep the pace up. She considered it a form of training. I think she just liked seeing me suffer. It took us three days to reach the base of the volcano. During those three days 5 werechipmunks, 3 wolves, and one bear attacked us. All of which I had to defeat for quote, unquote training.

The day we reached the base of the volcano Zarya told me to rest up and we would continue the trip the following day. I went to bed at about 5 in the afternoon. I was completely exhausted. I had learned that Zarya didn't like people that complained. I basically, for three years, was learning, practicing, or getting beaten for complaining. I slept like a log.

All of a sudden water was thrown on me. I jumped up and coughed trying to get the water out of my lungs. Zarya was standing before me and said, "It's time we go up and meet Yuki and Pyra." I nodded indicating that I understood. In the three years I had been training, Zarya also taught me the ways of Bushido, the way of the samurai. I had learned to respect my teachers. Their wishes were my commands, but I was always a rebel.

We then started to climb the volcano. I then thought about the imminent meeting of Yuki and Pyra. We would see them in merely moments. How awkward was this situation about to become? No one could know. Yuki thinks I'm on Earth and running from my destiny, but no matter how long, how far, or how fast you run, destiny will find you. The volcano was harder to climb this time. I'm sure this was a protective matter thought up by the girls. Zarya had no problem scaling the volcano. It seemed as if she had done this before. I reminded myself to ask about her past later. I wanted to know about everyone's past. It could be a fun hobby. Being an informant. Keeping the information on the team a secret. But I couldn't keep it a secret if I was ever tortured. Maybe being a thief was my destiny. My mind wandered off the whole time we were climbing.

We then reached an area that was flat. The area was at least 30x30 feet. There was a tent set up in the center. It was the same one from when I had left. It was Yuki's tent. I then looked over to Zarya for the approval to announce our presence.

"Hey look Yuki look, your lover is back." Pyra said while walking out of the tent. "And he brought a friend with him, and I must say that she is a looker."

"Pyra why do you have to make me feel depressed by lying like tha-" Yuki paused and looked over at Zarya and me. She just stared at us and her eyes lacked the luster they once had when we had first met.

"Hello Yuki... I'm back. I was in the Void between worlds. I was there for about three years. I want to apologize for the way I had behaved. I was selfish, childish, and immature. I hope you can one day forgive me but for now I have some good news. This is Zarya, the destined one of water. She happens to know where the destined one of lightning is about. We came back to see if you two wanted to join our search for him."

"You expect me to just forgive you? You had three years to think about what you did. I had a day. You kind of knocked me out cold remember? Pyra woke up before I did and she lost more blood then I thought possible. What were you thinking? I was in love with you." Yuki said with a hatred I never knew she was capable of.

"I am sorry and I didn't expect you to forgive me yet. I just wanted us destined ones to stay together and we knew where you two were so we figured we could get you to join our team."

"Pyra taught me something today. I want to see if I mastered it yet. I want a battle. You versus me and Zarya was it, versus Pyra. If you win we'll join your "team". Deal?" Pyra was giving me the same look the last time I had fought her. Something seemed different this time. Both of their eyes seemed vacant. Like they were possessed. Then Zarya spoke.

"You have a deal." She then turned to me and whispered, "They are under The Nightmare's control. We have to beat them in this battle and then the control should be broken. But I don't know for sure that it'll work."

"Well we have to save them." I said while pulling the Tsuchi-Karite out.

CHAPTER 4: Kidanari

Zarya had never once pulled her weapon out while we were in the Void so I figured this would be a great chance to see her in action. She never did tell me what her weapon was or what it was named even.

"Let Pyra and Zarya go first." I said while sheathing the Tsuchi-Karite. Zarya nodded and Pyra agreed, and I went behind Zarya and took some steps back. I didn't want to get involved in this fight. Then a black cloud formed around the two girls. It was forming an arena around Pyra and Zarya. I tried looking into the black cloudlike material but I couldn't see through it. Yuki was waiting on the other side of the makeshift arena. She just starred at me. It started to creep me out so I just sat down and relaxed for the first time in three years.

Meanwhile on the inside of the arena Zarya had been trying to break the barrier from the inside. No progress was made towards that goal. She slowly turned around and faced Pyra. Pyra's eyes now burned with a fiery passion. They seemed to be really on fire. Zarya shook her head and said, "This isn't real. This is a spell that will make me see things the way you want me to see them." Pyra disabled the spell. She was impressed that Zarya knew it was a spell. Pyra pulled out her three blades. She put one in her mouth with the blade pointing right. She then put one blade in each hand. The right side was once again the dangerous side. Pyra charged at Zarya head on and Zarya easily dodged the attack by side stepping to the left. Pyra quickly gave a backhanded stab towards Zarya with her left arm but Zarya easily dodged it by backing up a foot. Pyra was extremely angry at this point. Zarya then pulled out her weapon. It was a giant double-sided war axe. It was just as big as she was. It must have weighed like 150 lbs. But never the less she wielded it like it was light as a feather. She slammed it down right by Pyra. Pyra fainted from fear Zarya had installed in her with the giant axe. When the axe made contact with the volcano, the whole thing shook. I quickly jumped to my feet and noticed that the black cloud was lifting and it revealed Zarya standing tall with her axe and Pyra was passed out on the ground right next to the crater that Zarya had just made. Zarya then sheathed the massive axe and shrunk as it was being sheathed. I then asked her a question.

"What the hell happened? And what's with your weapon?"

"Well Pyra passed out from fear. My weapon has evolved to its final form. Yours is really close to evolving right now."

"I didn't realize that weapons could change like that. I guess the weapons react to the user's power."

"Wrong Lee! The weapon is connected with the user's soul. If it evolves and you have a blackened heart it will turn into an evil weapon and vice versa for the light side."

"You know as soon as this little fiasco is done we need to talk. I think that you are hiding things from me. I don't know what they are but I think there is something I ought to know about you."

Yuki looked at me with the "your dead" face. I knew that it was my turn to fight but I didn't know if I would be able to fight Yuki after all we had been through. We now had to fight. She would be most likely trying to kill me. All I had to do was knock her out, but that was a lot easier in thought to pull off, and actually completing the task would be a completely different story.

"Don't worry Lee, you can do this. Just remember everything you've learned while training and you should be able to control the powers within you." Zarya said trying to comfort me.

"Thanks I will try to show some restraint." I said unconfident in my own abilities to control my powers. I pulled out the TK and began to twirl it in the air. I then raised my arm lifting the TK over my head. Yuki unsheathed her sword and pointed it at me. Then the same black cloud formed around us just as it did with Zarya and Pyra. Zarya was now kneeling beside Pyra and checking her to make sure that The Nightmare's control was completely destroyed. I lost sight of the two girls seconds after the cloud reappeared. Now the only one I could see was Yuki.

Yuki charged at me full throttle. I threw the TK's chain and it wrapped around her right wrist. I dove off the right just as Yuki was within striking range. I pulled the chain and she fell over. She quickly jumped to her feet and let out a roar that I will never forget. It came from within. The primeval gene we all had. She had tapped into her roots. I tried to talk with her but she was unresponsive. I doubted if she could even understand me. I swore at that moment to make The Nightmare pay for what he had done to her. She ripped the chain off of her wrist and then slashed at me breaking the TK, my now useless weapon.

"Fuck. This is bad. Zarya I need help!" But at that point it was too late my concentration was broken. I was slowly starting to lose control over my powers. I could feel them rising from within in me. I then thought of a quick plan. I focused all the earth energies into my right arm. It started to glow green. I slammed my arm, up to me elbow, into the ground and said "Forest Maker!" I used one of the spells Zarya had taught me how to use. Then all around the two of us a forest was being created. The trees grew until the whole arena was fill with them. I couldn't see Yuki anymore, which more then likely meant that Yuki couldn't see me. I pulled my arm out of the ground and brushed the dirt off. I could feel the powers within me subsiding. I regained my concentration, and now the quest continues. I had to find Yuki before she could find me. I then focused some more energy into my right hand. I punched the closest tree to me and used my spell, "Vine Entanglement!" Vines shot out from all the trees and they all darted towards Yuki. She managed to hold them off for a minute or two.

The vines grabbed her by the ankles and wrists. The vines fastened her to the trees. She was now suspended in mid-air held up only by vines. I ran quickly to where Yuki was. I saw her suspended by the vines and my mind went to a dark place. My nose started to bleed and I could have sworn I heard Zarya yelling "Lee you finish this or there will be hell to pay!" I shook my head and returned to my normal state of mind. I jumped up behind Yuki and slammed my arm into the back of her neck causing her to pass out. I landed on the ground and then caught Yuki who fell after I knocked her out. The trees and vines started to decay and fall back into the earth. The black cloud like material vaporized into thin air. Pyra was a wake standing next to Zarya. Pyra looked completely different facial wise. She had a much softer look on her face. Plus she wasn't trying to kill me and that's always a good sign. I looked at Zarya and nodded. She understood what I was meaning. I had controlled the powers within me. I laid Yuki next to where Pyra was standing and she immediately starts to take care of Yuki. I walked up to Zarya and showed her the Tsuchi-Karite.

"Well that sucks for you. I don't know how to repair it, I'm not a blacksmith." Zarya said. Then Pyra looked up towards me and said, "I know someone who can fix it. He lives not to far from here. Maybe... Two, three days if we huff it."

"Well I need to go find him so I can repair my weapon." I said. The TK's chain had been ripped from the actual scythe part and when Yuki's blade made contact with the main part of the blade it had shattered. "Zarya could you take care of Yuki while Pyra shows me the way to... Who was this again?"

"His name is Kidanari. He chose to become an elemental blacksmith. The only downside about him is that he is very picky about the ones he makes weapons for. They have to be worthy of his weapons."

"Well either way we need to drop by and see if he can do anything about it." I picked up some of the shards, the hilt, and the chain and put them into the pouch. Pyra started to lead the way and I followed her. Zarya waved goodbye and then started to inspect Yuki's unconscious body for any traces of The Nightmare on her person.

We had been walking for about six hours before Pyra said anything to me. "I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused."

"What do you mean? It was The Nightmare's control over you."

"Well it was the first time we fought. After you cut my heel I lost a lot of blood and the controlling device vanished during that time. When Yuki awoke after you knocked her out she was different. I think that the controlling device is located in the bloodstream. Yuki got my blood on her and then she was under his control."

"Wow. You really thought that out didn't you? Well I think that means we need to be extra careful then."

"While I was under The Nightmare's control I saw him on several occasions. He lives on the Dark Island. The island is located at the northeastern part of the world. His island is the darkest part of the world."

"Well no offense but can I know about him instead of where he lives." I said.

"He is about your height. I don't know about his age because he was always surrounded by shadows and darkness. The only things I know are he has red hair and green eyes."

"Whoa. I have red hair and green eyes too. That's creepy." We continued towards our destination for about two days. The rest of the walk was silent. I didn't feel like talking because I was still freaking out about The Nightmare's appearance. From the sound of it he looks like me. I looked up towards the horizon and I saw a hut. Pyra started to explain about Kidanari and his history but I wasn't listening I was too excited. We went to the door and knocked on it.

"Come in. Mind your step now." A voice said coming from within the tiny hut. The hut was only about 20 feet by 20 feet. It was extraordinarily small for a black smith. The door slowly crept open and I walked in ahead of Pyra. I took two steps into the hut and fell. I was falling down a large pit. It seemed endless but then I looked down and saw a giant pool of lava. It grew larger at an alarming rate. I focused some energy into my left hand and grabbed the wall right behind me. I instantly stopped falling and I looked down and I was only about thirty feet above the pool of lava. I then focused some energy into my feet and my right hand. I then proceeded to climb down the wall and I poked my head out of the opening that was on the ceiling. I found the ground that wasn't covered with lava and I jumped down on to it.

"Hey bucko. There are stairs right over there." The voice told me. It was the same voice as before and it was coming from behind me so I turned around leaving my back towards the pool of lava. My mouth dropped and I couldn't help but stare. It was an old man who had to be at least a hundred years old and he had eight arms, four on each side. He had white hair that reached his shoulders and his nose was too big for his face. He was kneeling in front of red-hot steel banging it with his hammer. Pyra was nowhere to be found.

"Are you Kidanari the blacksmith?" I asked.

"Depends on who's asking." He turned towards me while the third arm down on the left grabbed a knife and tried to hide it behind him.

"My name is Lee. I am from the other plain. I am an Earth Thief with my weapon the Tsuchi-Kairte that was a sickle and chain. I come to you, Kidanari, to ask you to repair my weapon." I pulled out the pieces I managed to pick up earlier and laid them before him.

"What the fuck is up with all this formality shit. That's why I live down here. I don't have to conform to society's rules on politeness and decency. I just don't know if you're worthy of my weapons. If you could just prove you're worthy of my weapons then I'd be happy to make you a weapon." He said while he put away the knife he had tried to hide.

"How can I prove that I'm worthy enough for your weapons?" I asked.

"Well you could start by making it through the Cave of a Thousand Truths." He raised one of his right arms and pushed a button that was hidden along the ceiling. The wall he now had his back to opened up and revealed a cave entrance. There was a sign above the entrance that was covered in strange markings. "The C.O.T.T. is a place that gives you the one thing that you really want to know. The question is then... Can you handle the truth?" I walked to the cave's opening and then took three steps into the pitch-black cave. I started to turn around to ask Kidanari a question and the wall slammed closed trapping me inside the cave. It was so dark that I couldn't even see my hands in front of my face.

I then saw a tiny flicker of light coming from the distance. I started to walk towards it but the more I walked the further it seemed to be. I started to become frustrated at this and I tried to gather energy into my hand but nothing happened. I looked around and then tried to gather energy a second time. Yet again nothing happened. I started to panic so I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my energy to see if maybe it was being blocked. I couldn't feel any of my earth energy. It felt cold, dark, and empty. When I opened my eyes a silhouette stood before me.

"So you're the one who has been thinking about killing me. I expected so much more. You're not even a threat to me. I should kill you here and now." The silhouette said while leaning forward and while it leaned forward, a light started to glow from between us. I looked in horror at the face. It was me. I was looking at myself.

"How is-? What are-? Who are you?" I finally managed to get out.

"You really don't know? Well I'm "The Nightmare". My grunts refer to me as Lorden. You're probably puzzled about why I'm you, right? Well that you have to solve by yourself, but I'm in a gaming mood. Go to the southwest village of Mizuko. There you'll meet someone who will give you the answers you seek." Lorden said. Then he vanished into thin air and the cave wall slid open and revealed Kidanari's room. I toppled over as all the energy that had vanished suddenly returned all at once. My vision started to blacken at a rapid pace and the last thing I saw before I passed out completely was Zarya, Pyra, and Yuki rushing in to the cave to fetch me.

I awoke in a Japanese style bed in a dark room. I rolled over onto the floor and brought myself up to my feet. I noticed that my shirt and cloak were missing so I looked around the room but had no success in finding my shirt. The door to the room slid open and Zarya walked in and said "Nice of you to finally wake up. Yuki is washing your shirt because it was covered with blood. What happened in there?"

I went on and explained everything that happened while I was in C.O.T.T and Zarya looked puzzled. "So The Nightmare's real name is Lorden and he looks exactly like you?" I nodded and she responded with "Well that sucks. Well anyways come on we would go check to see if Kidanari is finished with your weapon." I followed Zarya out of the room and up a flight of stairs into the lava pit room. Kidanari was working hard on hammering the shapeless metal. Beads of sweat dripped down his face and dripping from his long nose. He was making my weapon, which meant I was worthy enough to be graced by his weapons. I looked around the room some more and saw Yuki and Pyra sitting together talking about something. I walked over towards them and Zarya followed.

"Do any of you know how to get to Mizuko? I need to go there to find something out."

"It's about a two week hike if we don't run into any distractions but it never goes the way we won't it to." Pyra said.

"What about the destined one of lightning? Shouldn't we go after him?" Yuki added.

Zarya looked at us and said "Your right Yuki, but we have to get Lee to Mizuko, it's just as important if not more important. This is the plan, Yuki and Pyra you'll go after the destined one of lightning while Lee and I go to Mizuko to find what we have to." I was grateful that Zarya didn't tell them that Lorden was I. I didn't want them to know yet until I knew more about the situation. Zarya drew a map for Yuki so she could find where the destined one of lightning was. Zarya had mentioned that he was almost always on the move so tracking would be difficult.

"Hey Yuki when you were under The Nightmare's control did you know what the trigger was?" Yuki looked at me and said,

"Yes actually I do. There was a device in my blood that controlled my muscles and the memory part of my brain. Zarya used her water power to flush the device out and we destroyed it."

"Well that's good I just wanted to make sure none of us were under his control anymore." I was relieved that the device was gone and a little crept out at how much Pyra knew about Lorden. She'll probably figure it out before Yuki does, I thought to myself

"You two should leave fairly soon. Like "now" soon." Yuki and Pyra got up and started to leave. Pyra walked through a door I hadn't noticed until then, while Yuki turned around and threw my shirt and cloak to me. I thanked her but I didn't think that she heard me.

Meanwhile Kidanari was slowing the hammering down and finally stopped all together. He turned towards us and lifted up a sheath and put the new TK into it. He handed it to me and I pulled it from the sheath.

"What is this? It's no longer a sickle and chain. What the fuck?"

"It's better and it won't shatter and that's a lifetime guarantee. It's a full-blown scythe now. The blade actually can detach and it's on a chain just like the original. The staff part of the scythe is made out of my secret material that won't rust, bend, or break. Also at the bottom of the scythe there is a sharp metal spike attached for your added stabbing pleasure."

"I guess your right this is much better then before and now Tsuchi-Kairte makes more sense then it did before." I then tried it out for a little to get used to the new weapon.

"One last thing before you leave, you need to embed it with your elemental energy so that it'll accepts you as its owner." I then focused my energy into the scythe and then knowledge about the weapon just flew into my head. Just like it did with the sickle and chain I suddenly knew how to use it. Zarya said it was time to leave so I put my shirt and cloak on and we thanked Kidanari. We then left his little hut and started our journey to the town of Mizuko.

CHAPTER 5: Mizuko

After Zarya and I left the hut she led the way to the town of Mizuko. It took us two weeks to get about 3/4's of the way there.

"We should be there by noon tomorrow." Zarya said to me.

"Well that's good because I'm beat after all that walking. By the way thank you for telling me who you are and why you know so much. I really appreciate it." I said while slightly increasing my pace.

"No problem. I should have told you in the first place that I was following you for the past four years now."

"The past is over with so just forget about it. Hey is that Mizuko over there?" I asked trying to change the topic.

"Yes actually it is. It's a lot closer then I remember."

"You've been here before?" I asked but she was completely ignoring me.

We walked into the town at about three in the afternoon but nobody was there. The streets were abandoned and the lights in all the houses were turned off. Then we heard a blast of trumpets coming from the western part of the town. We dashed over there and we found the entire village at what looked like a rally. We snuck up and blended in with the crowd. There was a stage in the center of the mass group of people. A little (from where I was he was tiny) man walked out and his voiced echoed through the group of people.

"What is today?" The man yelled. Everyone seemed to be responding kill, kill, and slaughter but it was hard to hear anything with all the noise.

"That's right today is the annual hunt for The Nightmare. We do this every year but I have a good feeling about this year. Now let's go hunting!!!" The crowd quickly turned and followed the speaker to the northern part of town. I looked over to Zarya for any ideas on what to do. She looked as puzzled as I felt. I started to walk over to her when all of sudden a voice from behind me said, "Here he is. He is actually here."

I turned around and there was one of the villagers pointing at me and yelling for the crowd to return. He had a trident in his hand and started to inch closer. I didn't know what to do. I could attack and defend myself but that looks bad on my behalf. My other option was to run and hope they can't catch up. I decided to run for it. I dashed off out of the village's domain and out into the open fields we had passed earlier. If it came down to a fight this place would be the best to do so at. The whole town was chasing me until I stopped running and I turned around to face them.

"I am not Lor- I mean, I'm not The Nightmare. My name is Lee and I am an earth thief fro-" I stopped because the villagers didn't seem to believe me, or care. The crowd started to part and the speaker from before walked up to me with a huge cleaver. He came within striking range and lifted the cleaver above my head. I started to reach for the new and improved TK, but it was too late the cleaver was coming down at full power. I was then pushed out of the way by a powerful blast of water that Zarya had shot just as the cleaver was being raised.

"Stop it father!" Zarya yelled to the man that was about to kill me. The man turned and looked at her like he had just seen a ghost. His skin became a pasty white color that rivaled mine. He turned around in horror and his jaw dropped. His bottom lip began to quiver and he looked like he was holding back tears.

"Zarya? Is that you, my daughter?" I was still trying to calm down from the near death experience. I slowly stood up and brushed the dirt off of my clothes. I then walked over to Zarya because it seemed like they wouldn't kill me if I were right by her. Zarya had kept eye contact with the man this whole time.

"Yes father it's your precious Zarya home again." She said with a sarcastic sounding tone in your voice. She then looked towards me and said, "This is my home. Long story short, I left this hell hole and never looked back."

"Have you finally realized that this is where you belong?" Her father asked.

"I told you once before I don't belong here. I have a much bigger role in destiny. In fact I'm one of the five known elementalists who are supposed to kill The Nightmare. Why don't you understand that if I live in Mizuko then The Nightmare will then destroy the world?"

"You still have yet to grow up. The world doesn't revolve around you and when you learn that the world will be a more peaceful place for you to live in." He said without caring about destiny. "Plus after you left that's when the "thing" showed up again. And I know you a little too well, it was you who released it from its underwater prison just because you felt bad for it."

"You tortured it on a daily basis. I refused to sit there and watch it suffer." Zarya argued with her father and it went from serious conversation to parent-child argument very quickly. I noticed that the crowd had yet dropped their guards. Their weapons were still pointed at me but they had yet to make an attacking motion. Zarya's father was now yelling loud enough that it started to hurt my ears. Zarya turned to talk to me and said, "The "thing" we are talking about is a spell that went wrong. I learned this summoning spell from a wanderer passing through our village; it allows the user to summon the deity of their element. So I summoned the water deity, Aquaria. But I wasn't strong enough to control it yet so it ran amuck and the village then captured it and tortured it daily calling them "tests"."

"You can summon Deities!? What was the spell?" I asked eagerly. She put her left hand on my right temple and transferred the knowledge of the spell to me. "Wow! I didn't know you could do that." I said.

"There are a lot of things you still need to know about me. I'll distract the crowd and you go find what you have to." Zarya said.

"Nope I want to try this first!" I gathered all of my energy into my fists and slammed them into the earth while saying, "Arise Terra! Deity of Earth I summon you!" Then the energy I had put into the earth was sucked from me faster then I thought it would be and the sky started to go dark. A shadow started to form in front of me. The villagers of Mizuko backed away and kept their weapons at the ready. Zarya's father ran about twenty feet and then turned around to watch what was happening at a safe distance. The shadow started to fade and when the shadow completely faded, a Minotaur stood before me on one knee. I looked up and noticed that the sky had returned to it's normal blue.

"I am he to serve you mast-. Hey I remember you. You were the one who came to my shrine for my blessings. You sure have become more powerful since I last saw you. Granted that you only recently came to this world. Anyways as you know I'm Terra the Earth spirit. This is my physical form on Elemas. So why have I been summoned?"

"Um... To prove that I'm not Lorden?" I said. I really didn't know why I summoned him. I just wanted to see if the new spell would work.

"Oh I see. We're in Mizuko territory then. These villagers have been stubborn for many generations. But wait wasn't it like two years ago they killed Aquaria?" Terra asked to himself.

"What!? You killed Aquaria?" Zarya yelled towards her father.

"It's true we killed the beast. The world has no place for beasts like that." He said while pointing towards Terra. "We have to kill the beasts so the world will be a safer place to live. CHARGE!!!" He said while raising his cleaver and then he charged at Terra. The villagers quickly followed Zarya's father's orders and charged at the eleven-foot Minotaur.

Terra raised the giant axe he had and was about to attack the villagers when all of a sudden bubbles engulfed everyone. One had the Minotaur, one for the villagers, one for Zarya's father, and one for Zarya and me. I pulled out my scythe and tried to pop the bubble but my blade couldn't pierce the bubble. Everyone else was trying the same thing with the same results. Then we heard a voice coming from above.

"Please stop this violence. I'm not dead." A female voice said. We all looked up and saw a mermaid descending from above us. She swam through the air as if it was filled with water. Zarya stared and was speechless. The mermaid swam through the air and stopped in front of Zarya.

"Yes it's me Aquaria." She said. I then noticed that she had long flowing blue hair, much like Zarya. Aquaria was also topless. I then looked towards the bubble that had the villagers in it and most of the men were starring intently at Aquaria's bare breasts.

"I thought they killed you. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to stop them from torturing you." Zarya said while starting to cry. This was the only time I had ever seen her cry.

"Don't worry you came back for me which means that you are once again worthy of my blessings and me." Zarya and Aquaria were engulfed in a blue crystal then vanished. The bubbles that we were trapped in floated down to the ground and popped. The villagers once again looked towards me and pulled their weapons out. Then they charged at me. I started to run away from them. Terra started to run and caught up to me and then instructed me to jump on his back.

I did so and used the horns as handlebars. Terra then took off faster then I thought he would be capable of doing. We quickly and easily ditched the villagers. When we both knew that the coast was clear Terra put me down and then sat down next to some rocks. Which he then leaned upon to rest for a while? I sat and leaned on some rocks that were across from him.

"Well you have summoned me and I cannot leave until you dismiss me. That's how the spell works. I'm bound to you until you cancel the spell." Terra said.

"I'll dismiss you in a moment but I want to know whether or not I have your blessings still and if you consider me worthy enough to summon you." I told him.

"Yes you still have my blessings and for the second question my answer is that I think you will be one of the most interesting people who have been able to summon me in a long time. There has only been one other person with your type of power before and he was the original destined one." Terra said while sinking back into the earth. "See you around." He said before being completely submerged in the earth. I then decided to go to the rendezvous point. The only problem was that I had no idea on how to get there.

Then all of a sudden a 2-tailed fox sprang out from behind the rock I was leaning against. It was about 2.5 feet tall. It then opened its mouth.

"You have found me. I have been trapped and bound to the inside of this rock for the past 1000 years. I was placed here by the one they referred to as Lorden."

"Lorden! Why did he do it?" I asked. At this point I started to feel dizzy. I had summoned Terra for the first time, escaped death yet again, and now a two tailed fox was talking to me. I would be sleeping like a log tonight.

"He knew what I was. I am named Kit and I am a baby kitsune. I was supposed to be the pet of the destined one of earth. But I know for a fact that he died 970 years ago. I need to break the curse and find the new destined one of earth so that I may help him defeat Lorden." Kit said.

"I am the next destined one of earth. At least that's what I've been told." I replied.

"Well see this was destiny our meeting here. Now all you have to do is break the curse and we can go, and to break the curse you must power your weapon up with your element and then smash the rock."

"Well most if not all of my energy is gone because I summoned Terra the earth deity. What if I waited here with you until tomorrow and break the spell tomorrow?" I asked hoping it would agree with me.

"If you are truly the legendary one of earth then I shall wait for you." Kit said. We sat and talked to each other and I noticed during this time that Kit's fur was a brown that I had never seen before. His eyes were green like mine and his face had strange markings just like Terra's shrine did. About three hours later the sun set and Kit fell asleep atop the rock he had been forced to stay in for the past 1000 years and moments later I drifted off into a deep sleep.

When I sat up I realized it was about two in the morning-ish. I then looked at the rock trying to see if Kit was awake but he had been forced back into the rock by Lorden's spell. A rustle came from behind the large rock Terra had leaned upon and I quickly unsheathed my scythe and was prepared to attack. Then someone came out from behind the rock. It was one of the villagers from earlier and upon closely examining the person it was a woman. She had long black hair that was tied back and was a little taller than me. She looked about 22 and had a slender body. I raised my scythe and she started to reach for a weapon but by the time she had it completely unsheathed I had already got behind her and placed my scythe around her neck.

"I was given an order to kill you Nightmare. The boss won't approve of failure so please don't make this anymore difficult then it already has to be." I chuckled a bit and then responded.

"I have my scythe around your neck. One simple move and I could kill you before you could even think about attacking me." She then stared to sink into the earth and completely vanished below the surface. Then a rock came flying out from under the surface and it was flying towards my head. I quickly dodged it by jumping to the left, right before it hit. Then another rock flew towards me. Then another and another until I had to constantly dodge rocks or else I would be killed. I then put the TK away and charged energy into my hands while still dodging the now constant barrage of rocks. I slammed my hands into the rock I had been resting upon and shattered it with my power. Kit was then standing on the ground beside me. He then realized that I needed some assistance. Kit opened his mouth and a green orb formed in it grew until it was larger than he was and then Kit jumped into the air and shot the orb into the ground. It destroyed the surface and revealed my opponent. I then pulled the TK back out since the barrage was temporarily halted by her being in shock for a split second. I quickly shot the blade part of the scythe at her and she jumped into the air and managed to get behind me. She pulled out a katana and was about to stab me through the back when I thrusted the TK backwards, impaling her through her abdomen with the spike that Kidanari had so graciously placed on the end of the staff. We both fell to the ground I landed on my feet while she landed on her back with a hole in her stomach. I quickly wiped the blood from the pole before it had a chance to stain and sheathed my scythe. I then turned around to examine her wounds and Kit walked so he was on the opposite side of her. He looked at me and nodded which I think he meant that he knew who I was now. I then knelt down and looked at the wound. It hadn't pierced any vital organs and it looked like she would be okay in a few days if I helped her out. Her cries of pain were loud and ear shattering, I hadn't noticed them until this point. I then put two fingers in her wound and jerked up and as a result she passed out from the shock and the crying stopped as well.

"Kit is there anything you can do to help her?" I asked him.

"I could heal her for you." He replied. I then told him to heal her enough to where she would still be bed stricken but she would be able to talk and not be in so much pain. I then went back over to the rock that Terra had leaned upon and fell back to sleep because in the morning I had an interrogation to perform. Kit watched over me as I slept so I wouldn't have to worry.

When I awoke several hours later the sun was hidden behind a thick layer of black clouds. Kit was still standing guard over our prisoner. She was still passed out but she wasn't in any more pain. I looked up to see that the black clouds had an ominous feel to them. A raindrop fell on my face and then another. The rain started quickly and became heavier as the seconds passed. I then picked up the girl and Kit told me to follow him because he knew of a forest that was not that far away. We ran up a hill and there was the forest right on the other side of the hill. Kit ran down the hill while I slid down it trying not to disturb, or drop, my knocked out assassin. I needed her alive and conscious if I wanted to get answers out of her later.

I entered the forest following Kit because he seemed to know where he was going. We ran for about a half a mile. Kit stopped and indicated that this would be our resting point. I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

"Kit doesn't it seem like something's wrong? I mean the clouds are unusually black, the rain was heavier then normal, and the fact that she never woke up." I said while pointing to where I had put the girl down at, but when I looked down she was gone. I started to look around for her but I couldn't find her. I then looked at Kit about to ask him a question when I noticed he was sinking into the earth. In fact the whole forest was sinking until all that was left was a pitch-black room and I.

I then tried to call out to Kit but my voice wasn't working. In fact my whole body wasn't responding to my commands. I tried taking a step forward but was cut by an invisible blade. My right arm started to bleed at an alarming rate. Then a barrage of slashes occurred all over my body. Then a katana appeared behind my ankle and slashed both of my anchilies tendons. I toppled over and landed on my back. Then from above me the girl was coming straight down with her katana above my chest. The tip of her blade was about five feet above me when I finally gathered enough strength to roll out of the way. The katana stabbed into the ground and got stuck. The assassin looked at me and then spoke.

"This was too easy. I thought it would be harder to kill 'The Nightmare'. You're nothing special. Once I kill you the whole world will know my name, Amy." She said while pulling the katana out of the ground and walking to me. I then remembered one of the lessons Zarya had taught to me about illusionists. Amy was probably controlling the perception and reality part of my mind. This was all fake and just in my mind. I was probably still laying their by the rock next to her and Kit. All I had to do was regain control of my perception.

I was still laying on the ground desperately trying to remember what Zarya had taught me to do when an illusionist has you in their spell. I couldn't remember what to do and the fact that Amy was moving closer by the second to impale me with her katana wasn't helping me remember. Then Amy was right next to me and while lifting her katana into the air and said, "Game over Nightmare." Her katana plunged into my chest right below the third rib down on the left hand side.

Amy laughed and started to celebrate next to my now dead body, but she hadn't noticed that I had already broken the spell and that she was in my trap. I had complete control over her perception and reality. The black walls faded into where we had fallen asleep the previous night. I broke my control over her and she woke up.

Kit was sleeping next to me and hadn't woken up yet. I was leaning on the rock I had fell asleep next to, and Amy was laying in the dirt with a bloodied bandage around the wound I gave her the previous night. Kit slowly woke up and strutted around some and then looked at me and informed me of my current situation.

"Lee you two were out for a whole day. What happened?" Kit asked while I looked over to Amy who was attempting to sit up. I stood up and helped Amy sit up while unsheathing the TK and putting it around her neck.

"Okay now your going to talk or else I will make you talk. Who are you and who sent you?"

"As you know my name is Amy and I'm an illusionist." Kit then understood what had happened and why we were both knocked out for a whole day.

"Good, now who sent you?" I asked.

"I was sent by the assassin's guild to take Nightmare's twin out for good. Every assassin in the guild has you picture right now." She reached into her back pocket to pull something out and I became really tense and nervous. I thought she was going for a weapon so I started to charge my energy into my feet in case I needed to make a quick escape. She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to me. I then sheathed the TK and decided that she was trustworthy for the moment.

"This is me right?" I asked.

"Yes and the inscription under the picture says that he goes by the name of Lee and is directly linked to Nightmare. Our job was to kill you and take your head back to HQ for confirmation. There is a very high price on your head. I wanted that money so I could start my own guild. If you're going to kill me please do it now. I don't like this anticipation game."

"I'm not going to kill you. I'm not Lorden."

"Who?"

"The Nightmare's real name is Lorden. Only a few people know about this so we just use that name amongst ourselves."

"I just asked because the one who put the hit out on you is named Lorden."

"That explains it then! Okay Amy I need you to hear me out. My name is Lee and I'm the destined one of earth. The other destined ones and I am preparing to destroy Lorden once and for all. Yuki and Pyra are the destined ones of ice and fire respectively and they are currently looking for the destined one of lightning. Zarya, who you saw flying off with Aquaria, is the destined one of water. We were visiting Mizuko because Lorden found me and sent me here for answers. I think he put the hit out on me and sent me to die in Mizuko. Damn he's crafty, he knew I would go to Mizuko for answers and that the guild would try and take me out at the same time."

"Okay then. How do I fit in to this?" Amy asked.

"Well I'm going to the meeting point which is Kidanari's hut and since you're injured I had planned on taking you with me and in turn get you to trust me. Then I was hoping you could join our resistance group to stop Lorden."

"Well I have to. You spared my life twice and patched me up. I may be an assassin but I do have morals. My only problem is that I can't walk very well right now."

"Don't worry about that. As long as I have your word that you won't try and kill me in my sleep I'll finish healing you." She then nodded and gave an oath saying she wouldn't attempt to take my life. I gave Kit the order and he finished healing her wounds completely. I then stood up and helped Amy to her feet. Kit jumped up onto my shoulder and he was giving me directions to return to Kidanari's hut. We started to walk northeast. About ten minutes had passed when all of a sudden the three of us appeared in a pitch-black room.

"I thought we had a truce Amy." I said while whipping around to face her.

"It's not me. If it was me you wouldn't be able to talk or move, remember."

"Lee it's not her." Kit said. "It's Lorden he's here with us. I can feel his presence but I can't get a lock on him."

"Heh. You were never good with tracking my presence Kit." Lorden said while rising from the darkness. "Well Amy I guess you failed the mission."

"You have no say over that only the guild master can decide that and once I inform him that you are The Nightmare your head will be on the chopping block." Amy said in retaliation.

"I think not." Lorden changed his appearance to a man in his forties that had almost his entire body covered in white velvet like material. Amy then gasped and started to back away slowly.

"So you're the guild master. That explains even more. But why would you place a fake hit using Lorden when everyone already follows your orders?"

"I was bored and thought it would be a fun game." He then reverted back to the appearance that looked just like me. He raised an arm and fired a black fireball. It hit Amy and Kit but not me. It formed a barrier around me that blocked Kit or Amy from entering it. Lorden appeared on the opposite side of the fire ring.

"Come on then. Attack me." He taunted and like an idiot I fell for it. I pulled out the TK and charged at him. I then swung the scythe around and he easily ducked under it. He pulled out what looked like a katana and plunged forward.

"Damn. The TK is too heavy I can't get it around in time to block the katana." I thought to myself. Lorden's katana plunged right through my stomach and it came out of my back. He stood there in front of me with his sword straight through me. He then pulled the katana out and kicked me over and then he threw a crystal at me.

"You will get stronger even if I have to do it myself." Lorden said and then vanished. We then appeared in the field once again. Amy and Kit looked at me and quickly realized what had happened. Kit ran over to my body, which was now lying, on the ground going into shock. Amy held my body still while Kit was performing a healing spell. After about four minutes my body was fully healed lying on the ground sleeping.

Amy was talking to Kit and the day passed on like normal. At about ten that night I awoke and was greeted like I had died. I had been out for only eight hours so we decided to continue on our trip to Kidanari's hut. While I was standing up the crystal that Lorden threw at me fell out of my cloak. Amy looked at it.

"Is that what I think it is?" Amy asked.

"I truly don't know what it is." I picked up the black crystal. It was freezing cold to the touch.

"That's a dark weapon. It's in the crystal stage now. Let me see it for a second." I handed it over to Kit who held it with his tail. "Yeah this is an onyx weapon crystal. I don't know why Lorden would give this away and especially to you. This weapon has enough power to kill Lorden himself. Why would he give it to the one trying to kill him? It makes no sense." Kit started to twitch and shake.

"What's wrong Kit?" I asked. He threw the crystal at me and I caught it with my right hand.

"Only certain people can control dark weapons and for the rest of us if we are lucky it will just kill us." Amy said.

"And if you're not lucky?" I asked.

"You don't want to know."

"Then I should get rid of this." I was about ready to chuck it when Kit called to me and told me to stop.

"You've had it already for what like eight hours. It would have already infected you so you must be immune to the darkness's temptation." Kit said. I put the crystal into my pocket and decided that we should head out before it got any later. We decided to stick to the main roads and just go straight to Kidanari's place. It took us about two weeks to get there.

CHAPTER 6: Destined

We arrived late in the afternoon. Kidanari's hut was a creepy place at night and the lava didn't make things any better. We had entered the lower levels of the hut and we entered the lava chamber. Kidanari had yet to be seen or heard from for that matter. The hut so far was empty with no signs of life, with the exception of Kit, Amy, and me.

"Hello? Kidanari? Pyra? Zarya? Yuki? Anyone home?" I yelled. No one was home I hoped. I didn't want to turn the corner and find the bodies of my, would be dead friends.

"I thought we were meeting your friends here?" Amy asked

"Well I thought we were too and I hope they're not home." I said.

"That's kind of messed up though."

"I'd rather them not be here then be here and be dead. In fact this place seems a bit creepier then I remember. Something's wrong. I don't know what but I'm getting a feeling that something bad is about to happen." I said.

"I agree with that. Something's not right. I sense something beneath us but I can't tell what it is. I'm still not at full strength yet." Kit said.

"It's okay the area beneath us is the bedrooms. Let's go check it out." I suggested. Amy quickly walked over to me and grabbed my left arm.

"What! Just because I'm an assassin doesn't mean I don't get scared." Amy said. I sighed and wondered how she ever became an assassin. We headed for the stairs that lead down to the sleeping quarters. There were six rooms to check. The five guest rooms were going to be checked first and then we would move onto Kidanari's personal bedroom. The stairs were pitch black.

"I got this one." Kit said. He rubbed his tails together and then fire appeared on the tips of his tails like little will-o-wisps. The fire crackled and danced in the darkness. The stairs became visible and we descended into the darkness of the unknown. I told Amy to wait on the stairs while I checked out the six rooms. It was a pretty standard set up, three rooms on the left side, two rooms on the right side, and at the end of the hall there was Kidanari's room. I decided that I should start with the two rooms on the right hand side. The first room had a sliding wooden door. This was the Japanese styled room that I had awoken in the last time I was here. I slowly slid the door open with my right hand while gathering energy into my left hand. The energy glowed with a bright earthly green color that tinted the room. I quickly surveyed the room and saw nobody. I slid the door closed and gave the signal to Amy to tell her that the first room was clear.

I then moved on to the next room that was also a Japanese styled bedroom. The door creaked as I slid it open. There were muffled noises coming from the closet on the far side of the bedroom.

"Kit come over here I need the light." I said. Kit trotted over and the room lit up with the dancing light. The fire cast a shadow over everything it possibly could. I slowly made my way over to the closet. I pulled out the TK and slid the door open slowly. Two bodies fell out and scared the living daylights out of me. I jumped back and almost slammed the TK into the one body that was moving. I then recognized the non-moving body. It was Kidanari but he wasn't breathing. I quickly bent down and checked for a pulse with no success. He had been dead for a while now so any medical treatments would have been pointless.

The other person I didn't recognize. He had blond hair and an outfit that looked exactly the same as mine but his was the color yellow.

"Who are you?" I demanded as I ripped the tape off of his mouth.

"No, question is who the fuck are you? I was here first. Well technically Yuki and Pyra were here first but yeah."

"Where are Yuki and Pyra right now? I'm their friend, Lee the destined one of earth." I responded.

"Soooo. You're Lee. I've heard a lot about you from both Yuki and Pyra. At one point they wouldn't shut up about you. But then it happen-"

"What happened? And who the fuck are you?" I found myself yelling at the unnamed person before me.

"Well first off you know how Yuki and Pyra are twins right? Lorden showed up here like yesterday and killed Kidanari for betraying him and making your scythe. This is when I found out that The Nightmare's real name is Lorden and-"

"What did he look like?" I asked.

"You've seen him you should know how he looks. Black hair, red eyes, and wears all black. His weapon is a really weird katana like sword." I let out a heavy sigh of relief and everything was good until...

"Oh yeah after he revealed the truth about Yuki and Pyra and put them in the spell he revealed something to me. He took the appearance of you and said that if I wanted to live then I should stick close to the one named Lee."

"What truth about Yuki?"

"The fact that they weren't twins at all, they were-" He was interrupted by Amy's scream for help.

"Kit, go help Amy I'll be right there." Kit dashed off to help Amy. I pulled out the scythe and cut the rope that had held this guy prisoner.

"The name is Rai. I'm a lightning thief. The destined one of lightning. The-"

"At this moment I don't care, we have to go help Amy, now!" I raced up the stairs following the screams. I arrived in the lava pit room and saw a woman holding an unconscious Amy.

"I thought this might drive you out Lee. How do you like the new look?" She asked me. She had on a red fire ninja's outfit and the cloak of an ice cleric. Her hair was red on the left side but black on the right hand side. It looked like a cross between Yuki and Pyra.

"What the hell are you?" I asked her.

"What you don't remember your old teammates? I'm not surprised though; you were always the heartless one. Fucked Yuki and left her to die on that mountain. That's why I was brought back. Yura of fire and ice."

"Wait Yura. Yu-ra. Yuki and Pyra." I said because I had just figured it out. Yuki and Pyra must have been fused together.

"That's what I was about to warn you about before you took off running." Rai said. "They weren't twins, they were the same being but spilt after birth to prevent that thing from gaining anymore power and destroying everything."

"Lorden has blessed me with my power once again and for that I owe him. All he asked for in return was your head." She said while pointing at me.

Lorden first gives me a powerful weapon crystal then brings back Yura to kill me. What is his game plan? I thought about it for a second or two then it occurred to me that he wasn't trying to kill me. He was trying to get me to kill everyone else. He knew that Zarya would go to Mizuko with me and that her father would push her away from destiny one way or another. I then thought about it some more. While he dressed as the assassin's guild master he knew that Amy would get to me first and I would defend myself even if it meant killing her. Amy must be important to my destiny somehow. Then he gives me a powerful weapon and fuses Yuki and Pyra together again. He gave me this so I had a weapon strong enough to kill Yura. Lorden was much more crafty then I originally gave him credit for.

"Ready Lee?" Rai asked again.

"Huh. What? Am I ready for what?" I asked while snapping back into reality.

"To take Yura on. We have to free Yuki and Pyra even if it means killing Yura to do so." Rai pulled out a halberd that started to crackle with electricity.

I started to think again. If I were supposed to kill Yura where would Rai fit into Lorden's plan? Then it hit me. I'm supposed to kill Rai. He's trying to free Yuki and Pyra even if it kills Yura, which in turn would kill the girls as well. Lorden plans on me killing Rai for killing Yura. Damn! I'm playing right into his plan. This is exactly what he wants.

"Rai stop. Come here real fast." I said. Rai leaned over so I could whisper something to him.

"I'm sorry for this."

"Sorry for wha-!" I slammed my arm into the back of his neck knocking him unconscious. His body slumped to the ground and his halberd landed on the ground to the right of him.

"This way he won't interrupt us. Now it's your turn Yura. Put Amy down over here with Rai and I'll go with you." I looked over to where Kit had been hiding. He was using his magic to cloak himself from Yura. He would probably tell Rai and Amy what happened.

"That was easy enough." Yura tossed Amy and she landed on the left side of Rai. She walked over to me and put on these weird looking handcuffs. I noticed that after they clicked shut that I couldn't fell my energy anymore. The handcuffs must have been sealing it off. Yura then tied a chain to the handcuffs and started to lead me out of the tiny hut. Once outside Yura pulled out a blue crystal and chanted an incantation. Before I knew it I was in a black thrown room with Lorden sitting on the thrown.

"So Yura you brought him back in one piece. That was not what we agreed on but this is better so I will reward your loyalty." Lorden raised his arm and threw a black crystal at Yura who caught it with her left hand and then left in a puff of smoke. I then turned back to Lorden who was walking towards me.

"I already have you figured out." I decided I should buff and see if I can get out of here alive.

"You have now. Mhmm. So what am I planning?" He called my buff.

"You're trying to get me to kill my friends so we won't be able to fulfill the prophecy of killing you." I said. His green eyes were a hundred times more piercing then mine could ever hope to be.

"In all honestly I was trying to make you stronger. The best part of it was that you would end up killing them. By the way how did you like your present?"

"What present?" I asked angrily.

"The onyx crystal. What weapon did it turn into I want to see it." Lorden said while removing the handcuffs. My energy returned all at once. It was painful to the point where I toppled over and started to cradle until Lorden kicked me.

"Get up you pathetic piece of shit. Now show me the onyx weapon!" I stood up and pulled the crystal out. He stared at it for a moment or two.

"What the hell? It hasn't even matured yet. You haven't been fighting recently."

"Trying to cut down a bit. You know health reasons and all."

"You're going to fight me right here right now." He clapped twice and the thrown sunk into the ground and left us in a black building that resembled the inside of an Old Catholic church.

Lorden pulled out his katana that roared with a black fire. I pulled my scythe out. He stared at me for a second or two then charged at me. He swung his katana at me and I blocked it with the pole and counter attacked with the blade but he back flipped out of my range. All of a sudden I could feel the black crystal growing stronger. It was somehow getting stronger. If I kept fighting it would transform into an onyx weapon.

All I really knew about it was that Lorden wanted it to evolve so I had to prevent it at all costs, even if it meant losing my life. I was starting to get tired from the increasingly stronger blows from Lorden's katana. Lorden pulled his katana back and prepared to lunge at me. He took off and I dropped my scythe and let his sword pierce through me. It cut straight through my abdomen. Lorden quickly pulled the katana out and was furious.

"You weren't supposed to die. Fuck the boss is going to be pissed. He needed those onyx weapons." I fell to the ground and began to black out. Before I completely blacked out I heard a male voice.

"It's not your time yet. Follow me." There was a bright light and I was engulfed by it. I must have been dead because I was walked towards the bright light and it was great.

Meanwhile back in Kidanari's hut Amy and Rai were just coming to. Kit had been taking care of them while they were passed out.

"Where's Lee, Kit?" Amy asked in a dazed tone. She sat up and looked around the lava pit room. The lava had become stone.

"Yeah that's a good question. Where is that fucker? He's going to get it good when I find him." Rai said while picking himself, along with his halberd, up. Amy slapped the back of his head momentarily shocking Rai.

"Don't ever threaten my friends around me ever again." Amy said. "Now Kit what is going on?"

"Lee knocked Rai out in order to protect him from Yura. He went with her to Lorden's castle. That's all I know." Kit said. Amy picked Kit up and petted him.

"Well it looks like we are heading off towards Lorden's castle. I think this is going to be loads of fun." Amy said cheerfully.

"If that sounds like fun then you need to get out more. Shouldn't we try to find Zarya first? She'd know what to do next." Rai said.

"Last time I saw Zarya she was flying off with Aquaria. I don't know what happened to her so it looks like we are Lee's only cavalry. Let's head out." Amy said.

"Yeah, yeah." Rai said. The three of them headed off to the northeast towards Lorden's only known castle. They traveled for a week before hitting a familiar landmark. The little oasis of hell that Yuki and I had been to early in our travels.

"This place looks like the lake that Yuki told me about." Rai said.

"Yeah Lee told me about this place. He said it was like a great relaxing vacation until three thieves showed up and ruined everything. He killed all three of them without any remorse or disregard for their lives." Kit said. Then a figured appeared behind the group and knocked Rai out with a chop to the back of the neck. Amy jumped forward and turned around. It was a six-foot man who was thin and had a snake like quality.

"I finally foundssss you." He said. He pulled out a shamshir and pointed it towards Amy. Kit jumped off of Amy's shoulder and went off to the side.

"Who are you and who sent you?" Amy demanded. The man smiled and his grin was thin and wide. He had many snake like qualities.

"I amssss Slither. I am one of Lorden'ssss generalssss. I am an animal hybrid. My element issss fire. Fireballssss!" Slither said and shot fireballs out of his mouth at Amy and she dodged them all. Rai came to in just enough time to hear who Slither was and he jumped up while pulling his halberd out and trying to swipe it under Slither's feet. Slither jumped over it and countered with a downward slash. Amy pulled her katana out and blocked the attack before it hit Rai. Amy raised the katana and Slither pulled the Shamshir back and prepared to strike.

"Nooo!!!" Amy screamed. Slither had plunged the sword straight at Amy but Kit had jumped in the way. Kit was impaled on Slither's shamshir. It gutted him almost immediately. All the blood and innards landed on Rai's face. He vomited while trying to wipe his face.

"One down. Only two leftssss." Slither said while pulling Kit off of the shamshir. He tossed Kit's body and it landed in the lake. Amy had a sad yet angry look upon her face. Slither released a fireball at the lake and it disintegrated all that was left of Kit. Kit was nothing more then dust in the wind.

"What'ssss wrong? Missss your fox." Slither said while slashing at Amy. Rai lifted the halberd in time to block the attack. Amy and Rai quickly jumped back to try and assess the situation.

"He's obviously too strong for us separately but we may have a chance if we fight together. We might just be able to rush him and catch him of guard." Amy said. Slither was angry at this point. He pulled out a second shamshir for his other hand.

"Now we endssss it heressss." Slither said while charging at the two who were unprepared for the assault. Amy managed to pull her katana out but she wasn't fast enough. Slither was about to strike when all of a sudden both of his blades broke in half.

"What kind of ssssorcery issss thissss?" Slither demanded.

"There is no magic for this move. It was my axe that cut your swords in half." Slither turned around and Zarya stood there with her back towards him and her axe out in her right hand. It was a big as the last time she used it. Her outfit was different this time though. Instead of having blue robes, she now had ocean blue colored heavy armor. Her armor was heavy and thick, but she didn't have a helmet. It was from the neck down.

"You have terrorized innocent people for too long Slither. It's time to go back to hell where you belong. Misogi blast!" Zarya swung her giant axe around and faced Slither. A powerful waterfall blasted out from her axe and hit Slither head on. Once the water stopped pouring out of the axe nothing was left of Slither. The entire area was drenched. Zarya was standing there staring at the two people standing there in front of her.

"So who are you two people and why was Slither after you?" Zaryra asked.

"I'm Amy an earth illusionist assassin. And this is Rai the destined one of lightning. We were just on our way to rescue Lee from Lorden. We already know who you are Zarya."

"What exactly has happened since I left for training with Aquaria?"

"Come with us and we'll explain everything on the way." Zarya agreed with Amy and the three of them headed off for Lorden's castle once again. It was about three days before the next pit stop and Amy had just finished explaining everything that happened.

"This is a good place to stop." Zarya said. It was a clearing in the middle of the forest. It was a wide-open pasture that stretched for at least 20 yards. "If we were to be under attack they would only be able to hide in those trees there." Zarya pointed to the few trees that grew in the pasture. Amy and Rai set up a camp for the night. Zarya went out hunting and brought back some bear and deer meat. It was about eight at night when they had finished eating. The three of them sat around the fire talking about the adventures that each one of them had faced to get in the position where they were now.

"Fireballssss!" Slither said while firing the fireballs at the group. Zarya managed to pull her axe out and block the attack just in time.

"I thought I had finished you off." Zarya said while lowering her axe and revealing Slither right on the other side of it.

"You couldssss never kill me like thatssss." He raised two new shamshir and was about to slash Zarya but Rai was faster and managed to get his halberd in the way of the attack.

"You waitssss for you turn. Your nexsssst on my list. Then you." He said while pointing at Amy. Slither used his left sword to disarm Rai of his halberd. He pulled back his right arm and plunged it forward only to have it blocked by Amy's katana.

"Good job you two but this battle is between us." Zarya said while lifting her giant axe and resting it on her shoulders. Amy and Rai backed off while sheathing their respective weapons.

"Now, now you twossss. Don't be ssssad. I'll kill you nexsssst." Slither charged at Zarya at full speed she barely managed to get her axe down in time to block the attack. The attack had so much force behind it that Zarya almost lost her balance. Amy and Rai became anxious and pulled out their respective weapons. She lifted the axe and blasted a powerful waterfall at Slither through her mouth. Zarya had become much stronger since she left with Aquaria for her training. The blast hit Slither and knocked him about twenty feet back. Zarya stopped the blast and charged at Slither with her axe prepared to strike him when the exact moment came. She came up to her target and sliced right through Slither. His upper torso fell to the ground with a hard thump. Zarya, feeling very victorious, sheathed her giant axe. Amy and Rai then sheathed their weapons in response to Slither's death.

Just then Slither's top half sprouted a pair of new legs and stood up. Then his legs grew a new upper torso and also stood up. There were now two Slithers standing in between the group. One of them charged at Zarya and the other charged at the two rookies. The three of them quickly pulled their weapons back out and blocked the incoming strike.

"What the hell happened?!" Rai yelled while blocking Slither's shamshir.

"You thought that would killssss me? Youssss really are sssstupid. Lorden wassss right about all of you. Your nothing compared to ussss." The two Slithers spoke in unison with one another. Zarya had her giant axe up blocking a shamshir. Amy was the only one who could attack at the moment. Amy jumped over Rai and landed behind the Slither that was attacking Rai. Amy then slashed through Slither and he fell into two perfectly symmetrical pieces. Amy let out a sigh of relief and sheathed her katana. Then the two halves got up and grew new parts. There were then three Slithers. Amy quickly pulled her katana back out in just enough time to block the newest Slither's attack.

"They just keep multiplying. There's no way to defeat them like this." Amy yelled. Zarya began to think and analyze the situation. She used her giant axe to push back the Slither that was in front of her.

"I have a strategy to neutralize Slither. Just follow my instructions and don't ask questions. Slice and dice him." Rai looked at Zarya with a "huh" look. But he still obeyed. Rai, Amy, and Zarya began to slice the Slithers. For every one they sliced two more appeared. They continued until the entire clearing was filled with Slithers the three of them stood in the center of the clearing. Amy and Rai were out of breath and tired. They could barely hold up their weapons. Zarya had a look of victory in her eye and sheathed her weapon.

"It's over we win. Give it up Slither. I figured out this technique when the fight first started." Zarya yelled hoping that the original Slither was close by. The crowd of Slithers parted and one of them, the original, came up to talk to Zarya.

"How did you figure itssss out? It wassss foolproof."

"It was fairly simple. After Amy sliced the duplicate then I noticed when I pushed back with my axe that you had become weaker." Zayra looked over to Amy and Rai. "See the more duplicates he has the weaker each of them become. His strength is divided equally between each of the duplicates. There has to be about a thousand of him right now so each one only has one thousandth of the original's power." Zarya turned back to the original Slither and put on hand into the air. "Rain!" It started to rain on all the Slithers. "Rai go ahead and use a lightning spell on the rain.

"Lightning blast!" Rai fired a lightning bolt into the rain and all the Slither's were instantly electrocuted and died in mere seconds. Not one moved.

"Let's go rest for a bit. You two deserved it... but are forewarned starting tomorrow your going to start my training program. You two tire to easily and you both at one point ran out of energy. If I weren't here you two would be dead right now. That is inexcusable for destined ones."

"Excuse me, but I'm not a destined one. I'm just an earth illusionist who got a job as an assassin." Amy commented.

"Yes I know and I think that your going to get yourself killed in the upcoming battles. We're not always going to be there to protect you. Since you're going to be fighting with us against some of the most evil and most powerful people in all of Elemas, you most likely will be killed."

"I wish Lee was back. He at least believed in me. "The Destined Ones" is just a title. It doesn't mean you get super powers. You all are restricted to the same rules and limits that we are. The only difference is that your destiny is already chosen. In fact I feel sorry for you most of all." Amy said in response.

"Fine if that is how you feel then go. We don't need someone like you to help us. The original destined ones who first banished the darkness chose us. They-"

"Wait! If the original ones completely banished the darkness then why is Lorden so evil. Unless... Okay bear with me on this theory. The original destined ones banished the darkness and divided the land equally to protect and watch over. They would be revered as gods on earth. Then naturally they would grow jealous of one another and try to take more land for themselves. But they would all be equal in strength so they would have to find a way to become more powerful." Rai said right before Amy put the pieces together and then spoke.

"Like releasing the darkness and trying to harness it to kill each other. What if Lorden was one of the original destined one? The one that released the darkness and was consumed by it." Amy said.

"That is very possible. Then that would mean that history would more then likely repeat itself with the current destined ones. Then one of us will become just like Lorden..." The three of them pondered for a moment then realized what the answer was.

"LEE!!!" The three of them shouted.

"The fact that Lorden looks just like Lee may just be part of the destiny. Lorden may be Lee's ancestor, thus making them related. So Lee after defeating Lorden may become tempted by the darkness's power." Zarya thought aloud.

"Well since Lorden more then likely has Lee prisoner right now, he could already be using the darkness." Rai said.

"I over looked something so simple. Lorden gave Lee an onyx weapon crystal. Lee was just fine and went about life normally until he was captured. It's possible that he may be immune to the darkness. He might be the only one who is able to completely banish the darkness... But it's only a theory." Amy said.

CHAPTER 7: Return

I awoke in a white room. It was like the void but instead of being pitch-black it was a pure white. I felt at peace with the universe. The fatal wound that Lorden gave me was completely healed.

"Am I dead?" I asked myself. Then from the light a figure started to form before me.

"No, you are not dead. This place has no name. It is the void's opposite. This is where all the destined one's have trained in the past. I am Dia, your guide." An old man walked towards me. His hair was all white. His beard almost reached down to his feet. His cane was made out of redwood.

"So Dia, am I to believe that I am supposed to train here?" I asked because I wanted to be sure.

"Yes. It has been written that you shall train here. You will be the one to banish the darkness. History has shown that you will be the only one to harness the true darkness once and for all. Let us begin our training." He turned around and let me through the world of white. I began to smile.

Meanwhile in Elemas the trio was just waking up. Trees blocked the morning sun but some light still managed to get to the clearing. The clearing had begun to stink from the rotten corpses of Slither. Amy was the first to notice the stench and Rai was the first to complain. Zarya had already mapped out the route they would take. The next resting point would be the ancient castle structure of Terra, the earth deity. Each deity, in addition to the shrines, had their own ancient structures. Terra's happened to be a stone castle that had been destroyed generations ago. It would take them all day if Zarya had done the calculations correctly. They left only minutes after awakening.

"Where's your armor Zarya?" Amy asked trying to make pleasant conversation.

"It's magic armor. I just need to summon it and it'll appear on me. It makes things a lot easier." Zarya responded. The rest of the day went by quietly. The awkward tension between Amy and Zarya was thicker then ever. Rai felt horrible because he was right in the middle of it and he could easily see himself having to choose between Amy and Zarya. He dreaded that moment and prayed that it would never arrive.

Back to where I was. Time flew by in this place. Dia had been training me for what was now a hundred years. I hadn't aged at all.

"Dia why haven't I died yet? I haven't eaten or drank a thing. Plus it has been over a hundred years." I asked.

"Well as you may have noticed on Elemas one doesn't need to eat everyday. There is an ancient spell that puts the nutrients one needs to survive into the air. As long as one can breathe they shall not go hungry. As for the other question, time moves quicker in here but aging remains the same as Elemas. Which is slower then Earth. Understand?"

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense." I responded.

"Well your training is now complete. I shall bestow upon you three gifts as recognition. First your armor." He waved his staff around and armor appeared on me. It felt as though I wasn't wearing any armor. It was brown with a green trim.

"You don't have to wear it all the time. It is like a spell, you may summon it or dismiss it as you please."

"Thank you. This armor is great, I love it." I said while dismissing it.

"It also has special powers that are attributed to earth, but I'll let you figure that out on your own. The second gift I shall give to you is a weapon of pure power." He grabbed a part of the room and forged it into a katana. He then lifted his hand up and the onyx crystal in my pocket floated over to him and transformed into a black katana once it reached his hand.

"What? How did you do that?" I asked. I was very puzzled at that moment until Dia spoke again.

"It had gathered enough experience to transform, but it recognized you as it's true owner. It refused to transform when Lorden tried to force it. It also knows what I am doing so it allowed me to force it into its true weapon form." He then held both the light and dark katanas in each hand. He started to chant an ancient spell. Older then I had ever guessed. The two swords began to float into the air and spinning around each other. They began to intertwine with one another until there was a flash. I quickly rubbed my eyes as they tried to refocus on the two swords. When my eyes finally adjusted there was only on sword in the air. Its color was one that I could never hope to put into words.

"This is the weapon that you were destined for. Pull out your scythe." I obeyed and pulled the Tsuchi-Karite out. The scythe began to glow green and floated to the sword. Then it began to fuse with the katana.

"This katana is the Earth-Chaos sword. It holds the power of holy, dark, and earth. This is the weapon that destiny stated you would own." The sword floated downwards until it stopped in front of me. I grabbed it and the power it held surged through me. I fell to my knees until the power began to equalize within me. I slowly stood up and looked at the blade. It began to glow green. The hilt was black while the blade was green. I sheathed it and looked at Dia. He was out of breath and looked like he was about to fall over and die.

"This is more then enough to defeat Lorden." I said.

"Foolish. Lorden is not your opponent. I don't have the energy to explain but I give the rest of my life in order to give you this final gift." His body started to fade away starting with the bottom of his feet. As he began to fade away an item began to appear in front of me. The more he faded the more the item appeared. It was an orb attached to a two-foot chain. There were directions carved into the chain.

"If you are reading this then I have given up my life. This is all the energy I have been storing up since I was 6. You will know how to use this when the time comes." I picked it up and put it into my pocket because the orb was smaller then the size of my fist. Now my problem was getting back to Elemas. I then remember something I had seen Zarya do in the past. I raised my hand and yelled return.

I found myself instantly returned to Elemas. I was at Terra's shrine. I had recognized the symbols from when I was first here. I proceeded to walk in and was greeted by an awaiting Terra.

"It's been a while Lee." The giant Minotaur stated. "I had thought that maybe you had forgotten about me until I heard that you had died. Now that your back I must tell you that I have been following that Amy friend of yours. And I must say things have been interesting since you've been gone. Two days have passed and Kit is dead. He died saving Amy from an attack from Lorden's general of fire, Slither." I shed a tear for my fallen friend and swore to get my revenge on Lorden for what he's done to me. "You must head towards my castle. Your friends are already on their way. The castle isn't what it used to be but you still need to be careful because a lot of the traps are still active."

Then we heard footsteps entering the cave. It was a young male who was wearing full body armor. His armor was solid green with no trim. He was carrying his helmet under his arm and his sword was sheathed and attached to his belt. All in all he looked like a knight with green armor.

"Do you wish to receive my blessings young warrior?" Terra asked. The young male, who was about two years younger then I was, put his helmet on. I stared at him and then I blinked and he was gone. Terra let out a scream of pain and vanished. I turned to where Terra had been and the knight was standing before me.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"If you want to know somebody's name you give yours first in respect." I commented.

"I apologize. I'm still learning these things. My name is Izen and I am the general of earth. I work for The Nightmare."

"Cool. My name is, uh, Shi. I was here receiving Terra's blessing before my big journey." I said having to think on the spot. "What would The Nightmare care about a simple earth deity?" I asked trying to hide my true identity.

"Terra's activity had increased ten fold since someone called Lee first visited here. Lee is supposedly not from this world and trying to kill my master." Izen said.

"Do you know what this Lee person looks like?" I asked still trying to sound ignorant.

"Yes I do. I have already vowed to kill this person. He killed my father. My father was The Nightmare's top thief. My father was killed by a spell that caused two rocks to flatten him." Izen said while his tone changed from innocent to bloodlust.

I started to wonder why Izen hadn't recognized me yet. He supposedly knew what I look liked. Then my questions were answered. I looked up and noticed that my hair was green now. My hair must have changed colors when I touched the Earth-Chaos katana. Izen removed his helmet and put it back under his left arm.

"Would you like to accompany me to Terra's castle? It's said that Lee's friends will be arriving there by nightfall. I shall fulfill the first part of my revenge plan on Lee's friends. Their screams of pain should get Lee's attention and then I shall kill him there."

"I'll go. It sounds like you might need some help so I may as well make myself useful." I said. In reality I was only using him for directions and when we got there I would reveal myself and challenge him to a duel. We then headed off from Terra's shrine. I followed him as though I didn't have a clue to where I was. That part wasn't very hard to pull off. We then entered the forest that would lead us to our destination.

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In the frozen island of Frostivale Yura was just entering a village that was dedicated to the ice deity, Nevea. Yura was hoping to become more powerful by finding the ice shrine and receiving Nevea's blessing. Her onyx crystal had already evolved and turned into a staff. At one end was a light blue snowflake and at the other was a red fireball. The staff itself was black. She entered the town and went straight to the tavern. If anyone would know where the shrine was it would be one of the crazy drunks. Yura entered the tavern and it was a slow night. Only twenty people total were in the building including her. She went up to a table and slammed her fist onto the table. It broke in half and all the drinks spilled into the four men's' laps that were sitting up to that table.

"I'm looking for the ice shrine. Someone in here tell me where it is before you all regret it." Yura threatened.

"I know where it be." An old man from the corner table called out. "Come have a drink and I shall tell thee." Yura walked over to the man and sat down at the table.

"Where is the shrine? This is your first and last time you'll hear me ask you nicely." Yura said.

"Well I can't seem to get the words out. Maybe if I had something to wet my whistle with, the words would come to me." Yura got the hint and was already on her way to the bar and got the least expensive drink.

"Here." Yura said while pretty much throwing the drink at the man.

"Much better. Now the ice shrine is about 15 miles west of here. But... If Nevea is whom you really seek then back to the mainland you go. It seems all the deities are gathering to one area, Terra's Castle. I know it sounds strange but I have a gift for following deities." The man said. Yura was getting tired of the foul odor in the tavern.

"If you've lied to me old man then you'll pray for The Nightmare's wrath when I'm through with you." Yura stood up and left the tavern. She had no reason yet to distrust the old man so she decided to head back to the mainland and go to Terra's castle.

Meanwhile the tension in the air around the trio was definitely thick enough to suffocate Rai. Amy and Zarya had been silent the entire trip. The stone castle was beginning to appear on the horizon. They only had about a half an hour left before they would reach the resting place. The sun was just beginning to set under the trees of the forest. They arrived about an hour later.

"This is your resting spot for the evening. Amy you stand guard up there and I'll start training Rai in here." Zarya said while dragging Rai into the stone castle. The castle itself was ancient. It looked like it would fall over any second but when Amy stood on the stairs to go up to the lookout tower it was surprisingly sturdy. She made her way up to the top of the tower and began to watch guard over the area. After about five minutes she became bored because all she could see was trees from the forest. She descended the tower and started to make her way to the inside of the castle. She heard noises from one of the far left rooms so she snuck over to the room, which was missing a door. She peeked into the room and saw Zarya and Rai sparring with one another. Zarya was too slow to catch Rai. He appeared to be teleporting from one spot to another, but in actuality was using a spell to move faster than a normal person would be capable of. Amy could easily see through the spell. The sparring halted immediately after a boulder came flying at Zarya through the wall. She managed to grab Rai and dodge it.

"Get out here, Zarya!" A voice commanded. Amy ran outside before the other two had a chance to recover from the attack.

"Who are you two?" Amy demanded. Rai and Zarya ran out of the structure as Amy was asking her question.

"The name is Izen. I am The Nightmare's general of earth. This is Shi and he has offered his help in destroying the three of you." Izen said while putting on his helmet. I stood there hoping that they would recognize me, but it looked like they didn't.

"You think that you can defeat the two of us?" Zarya said while summoning her armor. Amy immediately picked up the hint and backed down. "We are the destined ones."

"I don't care. Shi take down that girl there." He said while pointing towards Amy. I moved towards her and Rai whipped out his halberd and slammed it down in front of me.

"She may not be a destined one but she is still my friend. If you so much as move even a single strand of her hair, I'll kill you." Rai said. His energy began to increase dramatically. It had completely doubled by the end of his threat. Izen had already pulled his sword out. He charged at Rai and disarmed him, while putting his sword to Rai's neck.

"Listen destined one. Your opponent is I. The both of you must face me before taking Shi on. Go on Shi, go finish that one off." I started to walk to Amy and she pulled her katana out and ran for the watchtower. I followed but keeping a fair amount of space between us in case she decided to turn around and slash at me. She ran until we reached the point where there was nowhere left to run. She turned around and sheathed her katana.

"I was worried that you might have been in trouble Lee." She said to my surprise.

"How did you know it was me?" I had to ask.

"Well I'm an illusionist so I can see through that spell that turned her hair green. I must say though good job with it."

"I don't even know how it happened. It doesn't matter at this point. Can you fix it?"

"I can try." She snapped her fingers and my hair turned back to red.

"That's a cool trick. Now in all seriousness can you put Zarya and Rai in an illusion so they don't know I'm back?"

"Yeah but then they would be sitting ducks for Izen. On second thought can I just put Zarya in my spell?"

"No I don't want either of them to know I'm back. We'll go back down and you'll knock them out. I'll take care of Izen, and then you and I will go off on our own." I said.

"Yay. No more Zarya. She was a bitch to me the entire time. She even threaten to kill me... sort of."

"Focus Amy this is really important. Are you ready?" She nodded. "Then let's go."

We headed back downstairs and we could see Rai and Zarya battling Izen. Izen was winning. Amy cast her spell and everyone stopped moving.

"You just have to touch Izen and he'll be free of the spell. I figured this might make things easier for you." Amy said. I walked over to Izen and summoned my armor. I tapped him on the shoulder and jumped back.

"Lee!!! I finally found you. It's now time to kill you. Shi! Shi! I found him." Izen cried out.

"I don't think he'll hear you from hell. I killed him very easily. It was like snapping my fingers." Izen got angry and charged at me full speed. I pulled out the katana and blocked his attack.

When his sword came into contact with my katana there was an explosion of light and it blew him at least twenty feet back.

"What kind of power is that?" Izen demanded as he began to stand up.

"This is the true power of Chaos. When light and dark meet chaos ensues, but it's not always a bad thing." I walked over to Izen and raised my katana. He fell to the ground and started to shake. I could tell he was scared. He had both of his hands covering his head and was begging for his life. I sheathed my katana and helped him up.

"I'm not as bad as you give me credit for. There were extenuating circumstances to the death of your father. If I could turn back time, I wouldn't have killed him. I still feel guilty about it even today. Your revenge is understandable but not required of you. Just let it go." I said.

"How did you know I wanted revenge for my father's death? I never told you." Izen asked. Shit this was it, he would find out that I was Shi. Then an answer came to me.

"I'm the destined one of earth. I just know things that you don't know that I know." I tried to say without confusing myself. "Look the point is if you let revenge control your life then life becomes miserable. So are you going to give this revenge stuff up?" I asked nicely.

"Yeah I guess I will... When your head is mounted on my wall." He spit in my face. I wiped it off and lifted him up over my head. I threw him into a tree and it knocked him out. I quickly tied him to the tree with some rope from Amy's supplies and took his sword and buried it about six feet from where he was. Amy came over to help me.

"So where to now Lee?" Amy asked.

"I don't know. I guess we could head north until we get to a village or something. It would be pointless for just the two of us to go off and fight Lorden. He would win almost hands down. This sucks." I said while lightly bashing my head into the tree beside me. Amy then went on and told me what happened after Yura had taken me to Lorden.

"What happened to Zarya? She wasn't always cold hearted. She was actually pleasant to be around." I said while I decided to dismiss my armor. The armor vanished and Amy was amazed.

"I just love how your armor does that. It's so cool." Amy commented. We decided to head north to the village of Tanaka and take a well-deserved vacation. After that then we would join up with Zarya and Rai. Just then we heard and explosion. We ran back to the castle and when we got there it was gone. Rubble was everywhere. Zarya and Rai got hit in their heads and were both knocked out. We pulled their bodies from the rubble and set them on the soft grass.

"Who's there?" I yelled. I heard a faint voice. One I thought I recognized but I wasn't sure until I saw who it was.

"Lee? How are you? Lorden didn't kill you I see." Yura taunted me. "I thought he was using you for some sort of secret plan he had for his master. Huh. Life is always full of surprises. Like right now when I kill you and bring your head back to Lorden." Yura said while pulling out her new staff.

"You like it. It's my onyx weapon the dual staff. All the powers of fire and ice."

I pulled out my katana and the green blade began to glow a bright green.

"How do you like my new weapon, The Earth-Chaos blade? All the powers of earth and chaos contained in this katana and forged by the legendary Dia. Feeling like running away yet?"

"No chance." Yura charged at me and tried to impale me using the fireball side of the staff. I dodged it by jumping to the left and using my right hand to thrust my katana forward to stab Yura in the gut. She used the snowflake side to block my incoming attack. When the two weapons connected an explosion occurred and all the power that was created forced its way into Amy. She screamed in pain and fell to her knees while holding her stomach. The power that these two weapons release when they come into contact was being forced into Amy's energy. Her powers were changing due to the dark energies entering her body. Her hair was changing from black to a black that was dark like the void. Yura struck at me again and I blocked it with my katana. The energy again forced itself into Amy. I had to end this fast. I struck at Yura with all my strength and she blocked my attack with her dual staff. This time when they came into contact, Her staff broke in half and turned into a black cloud of solid energy. It all went to Amy who screamed and passed out after all the energy went within her. Her hair was so dark it gave me goosebumbs just by looking at it.

"Fuck!" Yura yelled while disappearing into thin air. I picked Amy up and carried her off to the north. I figured I should leave before the others regained consciousness. Her body was extremely cold and I feared that she was dead or close to death. I stopped as soon as the rubble left my view. I laid Amy down and checked for a pulse. She still had one and it was normal. I picked her back up and headed off to Tanaka like we had discussed earlier.

About three hours after I had left, Rai had begun to regain consciousness. He rubbed his head and complained that it hurt but nobody was around who would comment about him. He looked down to his left and saw Zarya knocked out. She was still in her full armor so he wondered what had happened to them. The last thing he remembered was Izen about to attack then the next moment he's here with a splitting headache.

"Hey Zarya wake up. Something weird is going on." He said while putting his hand on Zarya's shoulder attempting to wake her. She jumped up and twisted Rai's arm behind his back.

"Don't ever touch me. You don't have my permission nor are you worthy enough to touch me." Zarya said while dropping his hand. "What happened here? The castle is nothing more then rubble. Izen and Amy are nowhere to be seen." Zarya stopped for a second. "Never mind I'm not complaining. Let's go, we still have to rescue Lee from Lorden's castle." She grabbed Rai and led him through the trees.

I continued to carry Amy through the forest and I managed to leave the forest just as the sun started to rise. I looked at it and saw a beautiful it was. Amy's left eye opened and it scared the shit out of me. I screamed like a little girl and accidentally dropped Amy.

"Good job, Lee. Nicely done." Amy sneered.

"Amy are you okay? Yura's weapon's energy was pure darkness and you absorbed all of it."

"Yeah I feel just fine in fact I feel better then I have ever felt before. All the power that I absorbed somehow changed my element. I can't feel the earth anymore. There's nothing there just nothingness."

"I think you may have become a dark elemental."

"Well in a few hours if you and I are still alive then I'm immune to the darkness. But Lee if I start to go evil I want you to kill me. Stop me from doing something I'd regret later." Amy pleaded.

"Don't worry if you go evil I won't hesitate to kill you. That's just how sweet I am." I said and Amy started to laugh. She brought herself up to her feet and tried to regain her composure. Her entire energy system was different now. Instead of it being earth it was now the dark element. In the entire time I've been here I had never herd of anyone being able to switch powers like that.

"Hey Amy can you still use your earth element?" I asked. She raised her hand and pointed it at a nearby flower. She was trying to make it bloom and with no such luck.

"No I guess I can't." Amy responded.

"If that's the case then I don't want you fighting for a while. This way you won't have to rely on the darkness. I'll fight your battles for you." Amy walked up next to me and grabbed my arm. She led the way to Tanaka.

CHAPTER 8: Tanaka

We arrived in Tanaka two days after the incident with Yura and Amy's change into the darkness. Tanaka was a dark and gloomy town. It was a Goth's fantasy town. It looked like Halloween town from the Nightmare Before Christmas. It was dark and spooky. Also this was the closest place that I had seen that could even resemble Earth's towns. The town's people had shadows covering their faces. The sun was not to be seen at all because the town had a black cloud hovering over the town. Upon further inspecting the cloud I realized that the cloud was coming from the mountain right beside the town. This was once an active volcano but now it just creates this black cloud that hovers and blocks almost all the light from town.

Amy, about two years ago, came to this town to "take out" an intended target and in turn became good friends with the leader. We ended up getting the VIP treatment and it was nice to finally have a chance to relax. The hotel we were staying at, despite the fact that it was a depressing place, was actually very nice. The primary color scheme was black, white, and gray like everything else in the town. Our hotel room was on the top floor. We had the biggest room they had to offer.

"This place is great." I said while jumping onto the bed.

"I know. That's why I suggested that we come to this town." Amy said while moving her now dark black hair out of her face.

"Well we finally have a chance to take it easy. So Amy what do you want to do?" I asked. I hoped she wanted to just relax for a while but she wanted to go through the town and see some of her old friends.

"Well have fun Amy. I'll catch up with you later." I said as I closed my eyes and began to fall asleep.

I awoke to what I guessed was four hours later. There was a stench in the air that resembled death. I ran to the window while putting my cloak back on. When I looked outside the entire town was quite. Nobody was outside. Not even the marketplace had any people. The hotel was almost directly in the center of the village, which was about two miles from one end to the other. The hotel was the tallest structure in Tanaka. Just then there was pounding coming from the other side of the door. I jumped in surprise while making my way over to the door.

"Yo. Who's there?" I asked but no response was heard just a pounding. I put my hand onto the doorknob and was about to turn but the door broke and fell on top of me. Two sets of feet walked on top of the door, which was on me. I wiggled my way out and looked at the two people who couldn't wait for the door to open.

"Holy shit! This fucking sucks." I said as I pulled my katana out. The two figures were zombies. The one on the left was missing its stomach so I got a lovely view of its spine from the front side. The other just had multiple bite marks all over him.

"Well this is just great. Some vacation." I said while the zombie on the left charged and I stabbed my katana through its head. It dropped faster than I had thought it would. It made a loud thump when it hit the ground. I pulled my katana out of its head and prepared to strike the next one. I didn't give it a chance to attack I charged and took the head off in one clean slice. Its body dropped to the floor. I quickly decided to leave the hotel before I became trapped in it. If there were several things I learned from the movies about zombies it was that I needed to keep moving and don't look back. If I came across any living humans I would take them with me but I had no intention of becoming the hero in the situation. That's usually how the character would die in the movies. I left the room and sheathed my katana because I was going to try and avoid fighting. My first goal was to find Amy and see what her condition was, alive or dead. I then regretted having our room on the top floor of the hotel. It would be hard getting outside unnoticed.

I then heard someone yelling for help coming from the room right across the hall from ours. A high roller type was renting the only other room on the floor. I kicked the door down and saw four zombies kneeling around a man. The zombies were ripping him apart and eating handfuls of intestines and organs. They looked up as the door hit the ground and noticed me. They all got up and started to walk towards me. I didn't know how fast the zombies could be or anything about them for that matter. All I knew was that they ate humans but that didn't help me at all. They crept along and it seemed to take forever so I left and closed the broken door behind me. It should slow them down at least a couple seconds.

The smell in the hotel was just horrific and I would have thrown up by now if it weren't for all the adrenaline pumping through my veins. I had always wanted to be in a situation like this. I thought it would have been fun to fight off hordes of the undead in a life or death situation. But now that I'm actually in it, it doesn't live up to the hype. I made my way to the stairs heading down. I had twenty-four floors to go before I could leave the building. I slid down the rail to the twenty-third floor and took a quick look before heading down again. I managed to make it all the way to the tenth floor before I ran into anything. I hid on the stairs between the tenth and eleventh floor. I peered around the edge and saw a group of zombies just standing there as if they were waiting for something, or someone. They weren't even breathing, granted they were dead already with no reason to breathe. I waited for about three minutes before getting tired of it. I pulled out the earth-chaos blade and charged right at the group. I fell right through them. I quickly stood back up and put my hand to one of them and my hand went right through it.

"Holograms. Something's definitely not right about this town. I need to find Amy and the fuck out of here." I said to myself while running down the rest of the stairs.

I made it to the lobby but the entire lobby was scattered with dead bodies and zombies. There were at least twenty or more zombies between the front doors of the hotel and where I was had several options. One included charging for the front door but that would be the stupidest idea. The other would be to try and take all the zombies out from here but that might alert others and then I could become out powered. The one I thought was best was to try and find a backdoor away from the zombies. There had to be more then one way out so I snuck around the staircase and headed to where I thought the kitchen would be.

When I arrived in the kitchen, the place was a mess. Blood and rotting flesh were everywhere. The placed smelled horrific and I had to cover my mouth in order to prevent myself from throwing up everywhere. There were two zombies standing between the backdoor and me. From everything I've learned about zombies this was a horrible position to be in. I needed to kill these two with out making any noise. I thought of it. I charged my energy into my hands and gently put them into the ground. I created two very poisonous rose thorns that expelled from the ground and struck the two zombies in the head. They toppled over and I was now free to get the fuck out of this place.

Once out of the hotel the streets were crawling with the undead and littered with the corpses of the town's former people. No sign of Amy yet. That made the situation more unnerving because I didn't want to find an Amy zombie and have to kill her. I, from my hiding spot behind some trashcans, looked at both roads I could take. The left or the right. They looked exactly the same, but the biggest difference was what was at the end of each of the roads. Down the left was the way to the medical section of town while the right led to the market section of town. The medical section seemed like the most dangerous since that's where people usually brought the injured. That's probably where this outbreak started so the medical areas would probably have the most zombies. The decision was a no brainer to me; I was going to go through the market area.

Getting there would be easier said then down. The slightest noise could trigger a feeding frenzy and I do not want to be in the middle of one of those. I decided to take the cheater's way out. I slammed my hands into the ground and pumped energy into the ground.

"Terra, deity of earth I summon you!" I said in a firm but near silent voice. Then Terrra started to form in front of me. The noise and the light alerted the zombies and the all began to converge to where we were. Terra finally finished forming into this plane and I began to kill zombies with my katana.

"Hey it's Lee. What's going on little buddy?" Terra asked mockingly.

"Now's not the time for 'tude. I need your help to get through these zombies and help me find Amy. There's too many for just me." I said while killing a zombie trio that was about to attack me. The eight foot Minotaur pulled its axe out and swung it with such force that the building in front of us crumbled.

"Why have all these people turned into zombies? Have you figured it out yet?" Terra asked

"Uhh, no. Why was I supposed to?" I replied.

"I am forced by our laws to not help you with this particular situation until you figure it out first. Sorry." He said while sinking into the earth. He quickly submerged into the earth.

"Well that sucks and it accomplished nothing." I commented while decapitating a nearing zombie. I just needed to figure out what was going on then I could summon Terra again and he could help me out greatly. I decided to go straight to where I thought the problem would have originated, the medical area of town. I quickly darted in between buildings to avoid fighting.

The zombies had begun learning my patterns. Eventually I went between two buildings and a horde of like fifteen zombies were there waiting for me. I pulled my sword out and killed them all in one strike. I didn't have the time to play around with them I had to find Amy. I started to become tired quickly. I still wasn't good at summoning Terra yet. That took a lot out of me and I began to regret that decision. There was a house that was about 20 yards off that was boarded up. I figured someone might be in there that could help me out or at least let me rest for a bit. All I had to do was make it there in one piece. I didn't have much energy so I decided to conserve it for as long as I could.

I started to run as fast as I could towards the house and was stopped by an invisible barrier. About 10 feet from the house was an invisible shield protecting the house. That's why none of the zombies ever walked near the house. I charged the rest of my energy into my hand and broke a hole in the barrier large enough for me to get through. I landed on grass and laid there staring at the hole I had just made. It quickly and efficiently repaired itself and I blacked out when a hand grabbed me and pulled me to the house.

I awoke to what I guessed was a few minutes later. There were 3 people waiting around me. I sat up and realized that I was in a bed.

"Who are you guys?" I asked while rubbing my sore arms.

"This is our home and you are our guest, along with the girl downstairs." The middle one said. The one on the left was a young girl. Eight years old it looked like with blonde hair. The middle one was a middle-aged man that looked like the father of the two children here. The far right was a young boy about thirteen.

"My name is Lee and I'm not from here. What may I call you three?" I asked.

"Well my name is Jed." The father said. "This is my little girl Niza and my son Donny. Their mother is in the kitchen now preparing us some dinner and you may call her Mama. We all call her that."

"Great, rednecks of Elemas. Perfect." I thought to myself.

"Well where is this girl you were talking about. I think it may be a friend of mine." They led me to the kitchen and there was a woman about twenty-four or so cooking over a stove. The stove looked like it was from the colonial ages. The woman, or mama, didn't even acknowledge me. Jed led me to a door on the far side of the kitchen and opened the door. He then kicked me down the stairs, which I assumed led me to the basement. I looked up at Jed from the bottom of the stairs and he closed the door immediately cutting off all light from the basement.

"Hello?" I called out into the darkness.

"Lee is that you? It's me Amy. Just a sec." A light appeared in front of Amy. She was about five feet away and I walked to her and gave her a big hug.

"I'm so glad I found you. I thought that you might have died in the zombie madness." I said while holding back tears.

"What zombie madness?" Amy questioned.

"You don't know what happened?" I asked wiping the water from my eyes.

"No."

"Well the town is overrun by zombies. I fought off a horde of them and managed to get out of the hotel we were in. I summoned Terra and he was no help. He told me that he could only help once I figured out what happened. Then I saw this house and it turns out to have an invisible shield around the entire perimeter. Then I woke up and they locked me in a basement. What the hell is up with them?" I asked while losing my breath.

"Well I think Jed is one of Lorden's generals but I don't know which one. Lorden has about ten generals each with their own element and distinct ability. We already beat Slither who was the fire general and we already know of Izen the general of earth. Jed is one of them I'm sure of it. I've been trying to figure it out since I got here but he won't attack me. I tried attacking him but his damn kids get in the way. Don't let their ages fool you, they're tough little shits." Amy explained.

"Well I already have a layout of the house. It's a regular one story house with two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, living room, and dining room, and lastly it has a basement about ten feet under the house." I then thought to check for my sword. I reached around into the hidden pocket where I kept the Earth-Chaos blade.

"It's still here. We now have a great advantage over the four of them. Ready to break out?" I asked Amy.

"I was ready before you even got here." She replied. I pulled my katana out and charged to the wooden steps and began to climb the steps. There were only a few steps before I reached the door that led into the kitchen. I placed my ear to the wooden door. I heard only a woman humming. I assumed that it was "Mama" cooking dinner for the three others of the house. I sliced the door in half and rushed into the kitchen.

Meanwhile Zarya and Rai had reached the second landmark on their journey. The first being the former castle of Terra. They had reached the desert of Sandia, the deity of sand. The desert was over a hundred miles from start to finish. No one that started had ever finished. They all had vanished about fifty miles into the desert. Some have said that a beast lives there that feeds off of the travelers. Others have said it was Sandia herself.

"Do we really need to cross the desert?" Rai asked while making it into a complaint.

"This is the fastest way to Lorden's castle. I can't imagine what kind of horrible torture they're performing on Lee right now." Zarya responded.

"Well I don't even really like him. I knew him for all of about six minutes and he managed to knock me out for several hours. I think it was several hours." Zarya grabbed him by his cloak and dragged him into the desert. A few hours later they had reached an oasis that even Zarya hadn't expected. They both ran to the water and began to drink the clear, clean, and cold water. It was perfect oasis with two trees and an almost limitless supply of water. Zarya began to suspect some sort of foul play. According to her calculations they where right in the center of the desert.

"This must be the place where all the travelers vanished. Something's not right about this place. There's a strange power lurking in the air around here, and I feel like something's watching us." Zarya said.

"Well look who's bitching now." Rai said in a rude tone.

"Just shut up and close your eyes. I can feel someone's energy. It's coming from beneath us." Zarya opened her eyes and noticed that Rai had closed his.

"I can feel it! It's moving at an alarming pace straight for us!" Rai yelled as the ground burst upward in a violent explosion of sand flew off in every direction possible. When the sand and dust settled Zarya and Rai opened their eyes and someone was standing in between them. It looked to be a woman in her late twenties with a sand color kimono covering most of her body. Her hair and eyes were the same shade of light brown. Her skin was constantly shifting colors to match whatever it was next to.

"Who are you?" Rai demanded while pulling his halberd out and preparing to attack. Zarya had summoned her armor and took a defensive position on the other side of the mystery women.

"My name is Anastali of the sand. I am Lorden's general of sand. This desert belongs to Lorden. State your name and purpose for being here. If you refuse then I shall have no choice but to kill you both for trespassing. You there, speak." She pointed towards Rai and this surprised him. The whole time he had never been chosen to speak like this.

"Well if you must know we are the destined ones and are on our way to kill Lorden and anyone affiliated with him. I guess that's means we'll have to kill you?" Rai yelled while beginning to charge at Anastali. She sank into the sand and re-emerged behind Rai. She pulled out a steel whip. The sides of the whip were lined with tiny blades meant to stun and torture, not to kill. She lashed the whip out at Rai and he managed to use the staff of his halberd to block the attack. Zarya then took the opportunity to pull her axe out and try to charge Anastali. Zarya swung the giant axe but Anastali raised her left hand and aimed it at Zarya while her right hand still held the whip, which was wrapped around Rai's halberd.

"You are brave water, but you are no match for my sand. For the sheer fact that sand beats water. Sand Tomb!" Anastali used her magic to control the sand around Zarya. The sand engulfed Zarya so that only part of her hair was showing. The sand itself was fused with Anastali's energy so it was ten times heavier then normal sand.

"She only has a limited amount of air in there. She'll either die from suffocation or I can crush her right now." Anastali's left hand was open, but she began to close her hand slowly. Then Rai noticed that the sand that Zarya was trapped in was getting tighter. It was like two boulders crushing Zarya. Rai listened and heard Zarya scream in pain. The sound caused Rai to lose focus on the battle at hand. Anastali took this moment to finish him off. Anastali lunged at Rai with her whip wrapped around her right hand like an iron knuckle. Rai batted her away with his left arm and Anastali flew backwards and hit the palm tree that was about thirteen feet away from Rai. Anastali became frighten because she could feel Rai's power increase dramatically. Rai's power kept increasing it had tripled by the time Anastali hit the tree.

"You had your chance at peace but now it looks like it's my turn." Rai said. Rai charged at Anastali with his halberd out. His halberd crackled with electricity. The noises were so loud that they began to echo through the empty desert. He was right in front of Anastali and pulled his halberd back, preparing to swing.

"Please lightning have mercy." Anastali begged.

"That's not who I am." Rai said as the halberd made contact to Anastali's ribcage. Her ribs cracked instantly and Rai's halberd went straight through. Her top half fell over and landed in the water. The clear water quickly became a dark red with Anastali's blood. Her bottom half fell over and the sand around it became red and soggy from all the blood. Rai's face had blood splattered all over. He sheathed his halberd, which was dripping Anastali's blood, and began to dig Zarya out. He managed to pull her out of the sand and laid her under the only tree left in the oasis.

Zarya came to about two hours later. Rai was sleeping beside her and was awaken by Zarya's sudden movements.

"It's good to have you back Zarya." Rai said.

"Where is that giant energy I felt? Someone was here and had a vast amount of magic. It was about five times as much as you have Rai. I'm sure you must have felt it."

"I don't know Zarya. The last thing I remember was that Anastali had trapped you in the sand and began to crush you. The next thing I remember is waking up here right now."

"Well it doesn't matter I guess. But where did Anastali go?" Zarya asked has she stood up and looked around. Rai stood up and looked around has well but neither of them could find anything. They walked over to the water and it was still red.

"Rai what happened to the water? Why is their blood in it?"

"I don't know. Perhaps Anastali's dead and that person with a huge amount of energy killed her and left us here." Rai said. As he finished his sentence the desert began to fade away and in front of them was a giant medieval gothic looking castle.

"So the desert was just a spell created by Anastali to conceal Lorden's castle. Well let's wait for a day or two before we charge the castle. Let's do some recon first." Zarya said.

I awoke in the bed I had originally waked in the last time I passed out. Only this time I was chained to the bed. I tried to rip the chains out but they were surprisingly strong. Amy was suspended in mid-air by two chains hanging from the ceiling on the far left side of the 20x20 foot room. The chains were wrapped around each one of her wrists. Jed and "mama" stood between us with Jed facing Amy and mama facing me.

"You bastards! You killed my children in cold blood and you will soon pay for that." mama said. This was the first time Amy or I had ever heard her speak so we were both surprised. Her voice was soft and gentle which was surprising considering the situation. Jed began to move towards the closet and opened the door. He pulled out what looked like a potato peeler only slightly larger then a normal one would be. He then made his way to Amy and tore her cloak off. This revealed a slender body with some muscles visible in the stomach region. She had on a sort of sports bra and sweatpants on. This was the first time I had seen her in leisure clothes.

"I will ask you questions now and if you tell the truth the two of you will die peacefully. If you resist you will both die slowly and painfully." Mama said. "First question, where are the other's hiding? Water, lightning, fire, and ice. Where are they?" I looked at her for a moment and then responded.

"Well Yuki and Pyra are currently one being called Yura and I don't know where she is. As for Zarya and Rai, I have no idea where they are at this time."

"Wrong answers Lee." Mama turned towards Jed and gave a signal to him. Jed nodded and put the peeler on Amy's right arm and peeled a chunk of skin clean off. It measured about three inches long and a quarter of an inch wide. The wound wasn't that deep but it bled like it was. Amy let out an ear-piercing scream that echoed through the whole house. Jed took the piece of skin and threw out the open window to his left.

"Since the two people that kept the barrier up are dead, there is nothing stopping the zombies from destroying this house." Jed said. I could hear the faint moans from incoming zombies move closer. Amy's scream turned into heavy tears of pain as Jed took another chunk of flesh out of the same wound.

"Sick fucks. You're lucky I'm pinned right now or I'd kill you both." I threatened.

"Nothing but idle threats. I defeated you once and I can do it again." Mama said.

The interrogation lasted for at least five hours. Amy looked like hell. She had chunks of flesh and muscle missing at random points from exposed portions of her body. Her normally white skin was stained red from all the blood. She had just passed out from the last attack. Mama was getting tired of me not giving her the answers she wanted.

"I'm getting bored of her. Plus she stopped screaming so where's the fun in that? It's now your turn for a bit."

"Fuck off mama." I said in retaliation. She walked over to the closet and opened the door. Jed quickly moved out of her way as she passed him. Something about all this didn't seem right. Mama moved toward me with a green bottle that fit in her tiny hands.

"Do you know what this is?" Mama asked me while dangling the bottle in my face.

"Absinthe? How the fuck should I know?" I responded to the question.

"This is a bottle and within this tiny bottle is something known as aciditha. This happens to be my elemental power. I created this acid for an occasion such as this." Mama said while opening the tiny bottle. Jed backed out of the room and locked the door behind him. Mama poured one drop onto the bed I was chained to and the acid burned a hole through the bed and landed onto the floor. This aciditha was green and chunky like sour milk. It smelled horrible as it burned through everything.

"This will burn a hole deep enough to reach the core of the planet. Now you have one last chance to answer my question. Where are the other destined ones?"

"I already told you, I don't know." I pleaded.

"Fine. I'll let you explain the situation to your female friend over here." Mama slapped Amy across the face and Amy regained consciousness. Amy seemed like she was barely alive. Her eyes opened and she looked at me and spoke.

"What's happening now?" She managed to say. She could barely blink every time her eyes closed I feared that she was dead.

"Well go on. Answer her question." Mama instructed.

"Mama is asking me questions that I don't know the answers to. Thus she is torturing you to motivate me to give her the answers. Now she has this bottle of aciditha and I don't know what she's about to d-." I stopped mid-sentence because Mama poured all the aciditha on Amy's body. The room quickly filled with the smell of rotting flesh. Amy's skin was melting away leaving nothing in its place. Amy shrieked out in pain and Jed came back into the room with ceremonial robes in his arms. He handed them to Mama and in return she whispered something into his ear. Jed nodded and then turned his sights onto Amy. Jed cracked his knuckles and then placed his right hand onto Amy's left foot. After this Amy's screams became louder and more powerful then they just were.

"What the hell are you doing to her?" I yelled.

"Jed here was born without an elemental power but he was given an extraordinary gift. He can keep people alive even if they'd normally have died. Right now if Jed takes his hand off of her, she'll die. The only thing keeping her alive his Jed's power." Mama said while putting on the white ceremonial robes. She walked over to me and ripped my cloak off. My bare chest was exposed the air and it began to tingle. The aciditha was dissolving itself into the air and attacking me slowly. Mama bit her left thumb and began to draw some symbols on my chest with her own blood. I tried to think about what was going to happen but Amy's screams were very distracting at this point. Mama began to chant some ancient language that I heard Dia mutter once before. I didn't understand it but I figured it was going to be bad. Her hands began to glow with a dark red color. She then put her left hand on my chest. Her right hand then went to my chest and she pushed her right hand right into my ribs. I screamed in pain as her hand poked inside of me. She grabbed my heart and slowly started to pull it out of my chest.

"This will be my favorite trophy out of all of them." She said. I looked down at my chest and saw the top of my heart.

"This is it. I'm done for." I said. Just then Amy stopped screaming. Her pupils became pitch black and in seconds both of her eyes were pitch black. She kicked Jed in the face and he went flying right through the window that he had thrown Amy's flesh through earlier. I could hear the zombies ripping him apart and they began eating him alive. This caused Mama to temporarily stop pulling my heart out and I took this opportunity to retaliate. I focused every bit of energy I had left into my right arm and ripped the chain that was pinning it down. I grabbed Mama by the neck and she released her grip on my heart. It sank back into my chest and began to function normally again. Amy however was still silent and all of her wounds were healing at an alarming rate. In mere seconds her body looked like new. No burns or missing flesh. She managed to break free from the chains like it was nothing. Amy walked over towards Mama and picked her up by the neck ripping her from my hand. Mama began to beg for her life. Amy shook her head before ripping the ceremonial robes off of Mama. Amy held the now naked Mama at least a foot of the ground with her right hand holding her throat. Amy picked up the acid Mama had dumped on the bed next to me off the floor and held it with a closed fist. I was a bit frightened because I had never seen Amy this way. It must have been the darkness within her now making her do this. Amy punched through Mama's stomach and put the acid inside of Mama. Amy then dropped Mama and came over to me and freed me from the rest of the chains. Mama's body was twitching and near death when she tried to stood up.

"Die bitch!" Mama yelled while attempting to punch Amy. Before the punch could land Mama fell over and died from her wound. The acid had burned through her systems and landed on the floor. Amy threw her arms around me and gave me a hug before crying into my shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I did that." She repeated many times. All I could do was return the hug and comfort her.

CHAPTER 9: Reunion

Yura had traveled back to Frostivale to find the old drunkard who told her to travel to Terra's castle. She was pissed about the whole ordeal still. The fact that her onyx weapon was now gone just made her want to destroy the whole town and get it over with. Yura kicked down the front door to the tavern and it flew off its hinges.

"Where is that son of a bitch?" Yura demanded and everyone in the tavern scattered. They all ran out the back door and screams could be herd. In a mere five seconds the tavern was cleared. All that was left was the old man sitting in the corner drinking what looked like a beer and Yura in the doorway.

"You bastard! I warned you what would happen if you fucked me over." Yura charged at the old man and tried to throw a right hook into his face. The old man kicked the table he was sitting at up into the air with his left leg. Yura crashed into the table and broke straight through it while landing at the feet of the old man.

"You know I think you're starting to understand what I am." The old man said to the fallen Yura.

"Fuck off." Yura replied.

"That's not very nice. I want you to remember this name, Olman." The old man lifted his left leg and slammed it down onto Yura's face.

Zarya and Rai had pitched a small tent for the two of them to sleep in. The castle before them was gigantic and seemed impenetrable. The spell Anastali had cast was completely gone. Lorden's castle was surrounded by what could only be called a dark forest. Zarya was out on another recon mission of the fortress. Rai was left with the "very important" mission of guarding the camp while Zarya was out. Rai was sitting on a fallen trunk of one of the trees. He had many things on his mind at the moment. First of which was Amy. He wondered if she was all right after the fight with Izen. Which brought him to his next thought, Izen. He had many questions about what had happened during that fight. Fight? That was his next thought, the fight with Anastali. What had happened there? He remembered more than what he told Zarya had happened. He knew that he was the one that killed Anastali. He just didn't know where all the magic came from. He just focused on killing her and his energy grew beyond belief. Rai was worried that he may end up killing someone else with that power he had no clue about. Just then he heard a scream coming from the direction Zarya had left in.

"Shit." He said as he jumped to his feet and ran to the source of the noise. He hid behind a tree when he saw someone lift Zarya up by her neck. Zarya then vanished and the person turned around. Rai hoped the person didn't see him.

"Come out Rai. I know who and what you are. So why don't we make this easier for me and just give yourself up." The person said. Rai could tell from the voice and strength that it was a man. Rai decided to attack and avenge Zarya. He whipped his halberd out and jumped out from behind the tree. The man ran up to Rai in a blink of an eye.

"No way. That's not natural. What the hell are you?" Rai asked the figure that was now in front of him.

"You just need to know the name Olman." The man kicked Rai and the two of them vanished into thin air.

Amy continued to cry into my shoulder for at least twenty minutes.

"It's okay. You did what you had to do. I would have done pretty much the same thing you did in that situation." I comforted her. I was still amazed that this girl in front of me was a well-known assassin. Amy stopped crying and managed to bring herself to her feet. She broke the rest of my chains and helped me to my feet. As I stood up the orb attached to the chain that Dia gave me fell onto the floor.

"What's that?" Amy asked while looking at it like it was very abnormal for me to have.

"I honestly have no clue right now but I do intend to find out." I answered. Amy picked the orb up and began to scream in pain. The orb was burning into Amy's skin. The orb completely disappeared into Amy's hand. Her skin began to glow white. Light appeared from every part of her and she began to float into the air. I tried to grab her but the light shocked me and I went flying through the wall landing in the living room. I ran back into the room and Amy began to return too normal. Her skin stopped glowing and the orb was back in her hand. Just then an image appeared before the two of us.

"Dia!" I yelled as the figure finally took shape.

"Yes it is I. If you're seeing this then Amy has absorbed all the power that was stored in this orb. She is no longer tormented by the darkness. She now walks the same line that you do. You two are the true destined ones. The others that have claimed to be special are not. They were told that you all would be the one's to banish the darkness when in reality you two are the only ones who can harness the darkness and not succumb to it. They were used as distractions so that you two had a better chance to live." The image faded and I looked at Amy. Her hair was black with three strips of white in it.

"So I guess that means they were all just decoys." Amy said.

"I guess so. But that doesn't mean we can just abandon them. Let's go try to find them and get them out of this whole mess." I said. Just then the front door flew inwards and a horde of ten zombies entered the house.

"Shit I had forgot about them." I said while pulling my katana out. Amy pulled hers out at the same time as I did and we charged the small group of zombies. They were relatively weak compared to the ones I had fought earlier. It then hit me as the last one of the zombies hit the ground.

"Shit! This was a fucking scouting party to gauge our strength. Things are about to get crazy. We have to get out of here now!" Amy nodded in agreement and we ran out of the house through the no longer existent front door. When we got outside we were met with a group of about fifty zombies. I couldn't be too sure because I didn't want to stop and count them all. Amy began to lose her breath.

"What's wrong Amy?" I asked making sure not to take my eyes off of the zombies.

"I'm feeling a bit tired. I feel drained right now. Everything that's happened I haven't really recovered from it yet." I began to think about what to do and then an idea occurred to me. My armor was like a spell according to Dia so theoretically I could very easily summon the armor to protect her. I began to summon the armor when all the zombies before us vanished.

"What the fuck?" I said.

"I was getting tired of using mere puppets for our game of cat and mouse. It doesn't matter anymore because I have found you first." A man walked out from the shadows of some nearby buildings. He had on what could loosely be called a sorcerer's robe. Amy charged at this mysterious person and managed to get within striking distance. The man waved his black cape and two zombies appeared from the ground and grabbed Amy's legs causing her to tumble to the ground.

"Now that's no way for you to treat the only thing keeping you alive right now. My name is Foust th-"

"Your Faust?! The doctor who made the pact with the devil?"

"No. I'm Foust. F-O-U-S-T. Foust. My element happens to be death. I'm one of Lorden's ten generals who were assigned the task to make sure you don't get in his way." I began to think and I remembered something that Foust would not count on. I had a secret weapon at the moment and I didn't want to lose it.

"So your element is death and I can only assume that you are responsible for all of this death, correct?" I asked.

"I can't take full credit. My powers are limited to the restrictions of Elemas. I made a pact with the deity of death, Mephistopheles." He said overconfidently. I couldn't go back on my plan now that I knew this. I charged at Foust. Full speed with my sword to my side ready to strike and kill him. He chanted an incantation and two huge zombies appeared before me and knocked the wind out of me. I landed on my back and the ground began to shake and rumble.

"What is this?" Foust demanded to know from me.

"Your death. Terra I now know the cause. Please aid me!" Terra appeared behind Foust and began to swing his axe. Just then a giant black claw stopped the axe from killing Foust.

"Terra. We agreed upon this already." A voice, that sent chills down my spine, spoke. A black robed figure began to appear in this plain of reality. The black claw was his.

"Mephistopheles grant me the power of pure death!" Foust demanded. Mephistopheles' body was equivalent to the grim reaper on earth. Foust began to laugh psychotically as Mephistopheles picked him up and lifted him to his face.

"You have no right to tell me to do anything. That little remark makes the pact null and void thus ending your little game." Mephistopheles blinked and every zombie, decapitated or not, returned to their original forms. The town was back to normal with the exception of the two gods standing in the town. Mephistopheles opened his hand and dropped Foust to the ground.

"You may continue now Terra." Terra nodded and swiped his axe through Foust's neck. The body vanished as the head hit the ground. Terra sank into the earth quietly which was unusual for him. There was something he was trying to hide from me and I intended to find out what.

"Amy, I Mephistopheles bestow on you my powers that Foust had. You both may now call me Mephisto. You have earned my blessings."

"Why me?" Amy asked.

"Mama had died about four days ago and Foust revived her thus in turn controlling the children and Jed. My powers are a gift for your being able to handle the situation." Mephisto raised his arm and pointed it at Amy and then snapped. Amy vanished and in a mere second was back but Mephisto was gone. The town's people looked at the two of us like we had done something wrong. The mayor quickly arrived at the scene.

"I'm sorry Amy but your friend is no longer allowed in Tanaka. Once you two leave he may never come back to Tanaka. He has been nothing but trouble since yesterday."

"Yesterday?" I said while sheathing my katana. I looked off to the sky and saw the morning sun rise. I made my way back to the hotel and went to the room to pick up the few things I had left at the room. Also I stole a few towels. In a mere hour Amy and I left Tanaka and headed east towards Lorden's castle like we agreed on.

A few hours had passed and we finished walking through the plains of Tana. We decided to stop and take a break at the entrance to the dark forest surrounding Lorden's castle. As it turns out the dark forest surrounds Lorden's castle, which is located right next to Tanaka's territory.

"So Amy what happened when you vanished for a second. What did Mephisto do?" I asked because I had been thinking about it.

"Well he froze time and trained me in the ways of necromancy. Time was frozen for five years."

"Shit. That still amazes me. Time can move so differently in different places and aging is the same as it would be on earth."

"Yeah I know the feeling. I've been to earth twice. Two of my targets escaped to a place called Paris. It was a beautiful place and one day I would love to go back. I almost forgot something I wanted to show you." She stood up and donned armor. It was black with white trim. "This is my chaos armor. It helps me channel the enormous powers of chaos. Then he gave me this as sort of a graduation gift." She pulled out a skull from the sheath next to her sword.

"What the hell is the skull for?" I asked even though I had a pretty good idea. She threw the skull and began chanting. The skull transformed into a full skeleton. It had a sword and shield like you would see on medieval knights. She then dismissed the spell and the skeleton returned to being just a skull.

"I call him Skelly and that is all I can summon for the moment. The more practice I get the more I can summon." She then said she was tired. I couldn't blame her. Neither of us had gotten any real sleep since we arrived in Tanaka. I used my energy to create an igloo made of rock for us to sleep in for the night. It was about twenty feet long and twenty feet wide. I wanted it to be big enough to be comfortable in. We entered the hut at about nine at night and Amy fell right to sleep. I on the other hand could not fall asleep. I was too wired. I had all this pent up energy and nothing to do with it. I hadn't used much energy at all since we escaped Mama's but then again I didn't have much energy left. I still couldn't sleep and I started to creep myself out by staring at Amy sleep. I left the hut and went out for a walk. The moon was almost directly above me, which meant it was almost midnight. The sky was clear and there were countless amounts of stars in the sky. I wondered if Elemas had it's own solar system like earth or if it was just a one planet dimension or what. It would be interesting if Elemas were part of the Milky Way galaxy and the early inhabitants of Elemas created the green flash. Perhaps the two places had more in common than anyone could have possibly had imagined. All this thinking had made me tired so I crawled back into the hut and fell asleep.

A yell came from outside of our makeshift hut. I quickly crawled out and made it up to my feet. Amy followed but we were still groggy. A man stood before us. The rising sun behind him blocked his face and he had on a brown ninja outfit. His eyes were the only exposed part of him but I couldn't recognize him just from the eyes. He charged at me and before I had so much as a chance to blink his foot had already made contact with my chest. I flew back and landed in the trunk of a tree. The impact made me lose my breath and the ninja took this opportunity to throw a net at me. Once the net surrounded me it began to steal my energy. Amy pulled her katana out and tried to cut through the net but it had a spell put on it.

"Anyone who touches the net will end up trapped in it as well." The figure said. Amy and I were trapped in this net that was draining our powers at an alarming rate. I began to lose consciousness but it felt good to be sleeping again. Before I completely passed out I heard the ninja talking to Amy. I only heard one word Olman.

When I awoke I was in a cell that reminded me of prisons on earth. I quickly looked around the room for any signs of escape or other life forms. There was someone in the bunk of my six by six cell. I walked over to the bunk and ripped the covers off. Amy was still sleeping from the lack of energy. I tapped her on the shoulder to wake her up.

"Where are we?" She asked.

"I don't know but it looks like a prison of some sort. All I remember was the guy in the brown ninja's outfit and the name Olman."

"Oh yeah! Olman that bastard did this. He's one of the top two assassins in the guild. Lorden finally found a way to get us." Amy said.

"Lee is that you?" A female voice called out from the darkness beyond our cell.

"Who wants to know?" I replied.

"Zarya, Rai, and Yura."

"WHAT!? Zarya you're trapped in here too?" I said and the cell doors opened. Amy and I walked out into what looked like an arena made up of prison cells. Zarya and Rai walked out of their cell, which was about four cells down from ours. They ran over to us like they hadn't seen us in forever. Zarya gave me a hug while Rai gave Amy a hug. Just as things began to settle down Yura walked up to the group of us from the shadows.

"So you guys are here too?" Yura said in a tone I had never heard her use before.

"It's good to see you too Yura." I said while walking up to her and giving her a hug. Yura surprisingly took the hug and then regained her composure.

"Here is the situation, Lorden hired the assassin's guild again to capture us dead or alive. The only thing we know about our captor is that he is the second best in the guild. Olman is what he goes by." Amy informed everyone else of the situation. The lights all shut off at once and then one spotlight focused in on the only door out of this arena looking place. In the doorway was Olman wearing his ninja's outfit but his head was perfectly visible.

"I hope you all rested because the real fun is about to begin. You all are wanted dead or alive with the exception of Lee who is wanted only dead. I figure we can have some fun before I turn your corpses in to Lorden. We are going to play a game. This will be your arena and we are going to have a tournament. The winner will have the honor to be presented to Lorden alive all the others will be dead. Since there is an uneven amount of you, Lee automatically advances to the final round." Olman said.

"Okay guys make it look good." I said. I walked off to one of the cells and the door locked behind me. Then every one else chose their own cell and the doors locked behind each of them.

"The first battle Zarya versus Amy." Olman said. Amy and Zarya proceeded to walk into the middle of the arena. The three of us still in cells were teleported to the second floor.

"This way none of you can interfere and you'll get a good view of your friends dying." Olman said before he blew a whistle.

"I've waited for this since you first besmirched the name of destined one." Zarya said threating Amy while they both pulled their respective weapons out.

"Bring it bitch." Amy replied. Zarya swung her giant axe and Amy ducked under the incoming attack. The giant axe was powerful but it lacked a certain speed it needed to hit Amy. Before Zarya had time to bring the axe back around to defend her Amy swipe kicked Zarya off of her feet. Zarya's head hit the concrete ground and began to bleed. Amy followed her kick through and landed on her feet. Amy then held her katana over Zarya's head.

"Finish her Amy!" Olman yelled. Just as Amy's katana began to fall Zarya rolled over and pointed her hand at Amy.

"Misogi blast!" The powerful jet stream of water blasted Amy back into the wall. Amy also had lost her grip on the katana making her defenseless against any incoming attacks. Zarya grabbed her axe and lifted herself to her feet and began to walk toward Amy. I couldn't do anything for either of them and it truly hurt me. With every step that Zarya took the water pressure rose and hurt Amy more. Zarya then stopped the blast and charged at Amy with her axe ready to kill. Amy who was out of breath from the attack raised her pointer finger and pointed it at Zarya. Then Zarya's axe dropped to the floor and Zarya began to choke. I looked closely at Zarya and saw a thin layer of black energy on surrounding her. Amy then took her katana and walked over to Zarya who was lying on the ground gasping for air. Amy aimed her katana at Zarya's heart.

"You still think your something special. Well I learned the truth about your "powers"." Amy slammed the blade through Zarya's heart and then ripped it out. Zarya twitched and quickly stopped moving all together. Amy took Zarya's heart off the tip of her katana and threw it at Olman who was laughing maniacally at this point. He stepped on the heart once it landed before him.

"Very entertaining. Amy you may wait in the cell right there until the next round." Amy walked into the cell while wiping the blood from her katana. She made her way to the bunk and laid down on it.

"Next up will certainly be an interesting match. Yura of fire and ice versus Rai the little bitch." Olman said as the two cell doors flew open. I looked down at the arena and saw that Zarya's body was gone.

"Where is the body of Zarya?" I demanded to know.

"In your cell with you." Olman said. I turned around and saw Zarya's lifeless body on the floor. I started to gag and quickly covered my mouth. "All the losers will be placed in the cell that Lee is in so that he may see all the lives lost because of him today." That bastard knew how to play mind tricks on people. No wonder he's one of the best assassins in Elemas.

Rai and Yura were ready to fight and waited for Olman's signal. Rai pulled his halberd out and it crackled with power. Rai's energy was growing to unfathomable amounts again. Yura pulled out a plain steel staff. I looked at it funny because I had never really saw Yura's real weapon. I had only seen her onyx weapon, the dual staff. Yura's weapon burst into flames at one end and the other end froze. Olman blew his damn whistle and before Yura could do anything more then blink, Rai was gone. Rai was using his spell that made him appear to be invisible but he was really just moving at high speeds. Just as Yura turned to look behind her Rai's halberd slashed her stomach. It wasn't a deep wound it was actually very minor. Rai was just playing around with her because if he truly wanted it over then that last blow would have been the final blow. Yura took her staff into both hands and slammed the frozen side onto the ground and her staff shattered. Just then the entire floor turned to ice with no area spared. Olman slipped and fell down on his back. Yura noticed this and decided to try and get revenge for what has happened. Rai no longer able to maintain any traction on the floor lost the spells effect. He slammed face first into the wall and he was knocked unconscious. Yura jumped towards the fallen Olman hoping to take him out before he had a chance to recover. Yura made it to the third floor where Olman was now located and prepared herself for a kick to his head. Just as her foot began to make contact with his face he vanished and appeared behind Yura. He grabbed Her head and broke her neck like it was a pencil. The crack that Yura's neck made echoed through the hollowed arena. Her body fell to the ground and then appeared by Zarya's body inside of my cell. The smell was quickly becoming unbearable but luckily there was only one more battle before it was my turn.

"Well that's really disappointing. I had really hoped that it would be Yura versus Amy. Either way it doesn't really matter I guess. Amy your free to fight now. Don't let the fact that he's out cold stop you from making this entertaining." Amy's cell opened and she walked out with her katana in her right hand ready to kill off Rai who was still out cold. She stood next to him with her katana aimed right for his head. She then plunged the katana straight into Rai's head. He stopped breathing immediately. The blood flowed faster then I had thought it would.

"Your not even trying anymore. Well this last match will prove to be quite fun. Lee it's finally your turn and please try not to disappoint me like Yura did." Olman spoke and all of a sudden I was were Rai was. Rai was in the cell where I had been. Amy was right in front of me and her energy was cold and shockingly evil. I never could have guessed that Amy could have pulled all of this off. I still remembered her as the incompetent assassin that failed at trying to kill me.

"Amy I'm sorry but I don't have any choice. Please forgive me for this." I said while pulling my blade out. I summoned my armor and prepared to attack. Amy looked at me with a vacant stare. She was no longer her cheery self. I had failed her and it hurt me more than any blade could. I began to cry as I charged at her with all my might I put all the energy I had left into the sword and it transformed into a giant green war hammer. I raised it above her head and began to slam it down. Amy raised her left hand and charged pure chaos energy into her hand and fired it at me. I ended up on the wall where Rai got knocked out. She walked over to me and charged pure chaos energy into her katana and plunged it into my chest. She then cut a circle out of me and took my heart out. I blacked out and became cold.

"I love y-" Was all I could get out before I died. My body fell over and slammed onto the concrete floor.

Once Yura had died the floors unfroze but it was still cold. Olman teleported to Amy and threw his net over her so she couldn't kill him. He bent over and checked for a pulse. He was very happy when he couldn't find one on me. He snapped and the arena vanished leaving us in a pure black room. He ran about thirty feet and opened a door that only someone who knows the layout of the room could find.

Lorden walked into the room and over to the bodies of Amy's deceased friends. He checked every single one of them for any signs of life.

"For everyone that's dead you'll receive one onyx crystal." Lorden said while handing over three onyx crystals. Lorden and Olman walked over to my corpse and Lorden pulled out his dark fire katana and stabbed my back to make sure I was truly dead. Amy remained quite and seemed to be mumbling to herself. Lorden became irritated at this and walked over to Amy.

"My dear Amy are you feeling bad for killing Lee and the other destined ones? It's not a problem I'll take care of you now. You shall be my queen as we rule all of Elemas for the rest of time." Lorden said. Amy said nothing in return she just continued to mumble to herself. Lorden got tired of this and commanded Olman to dump our corpses in the outer regions of the castle. Lorden and Olman left the black room and Lorden locked the door while saying "When your ready to be my queen, or die, I shall let you out."

Amy sat on the floor and began to focus all of her energy in one point of her body and then time froze. A black figure descended from the ceiling.

"Mephisto I request that Lee, Zarya, Yura, and Rai have their lives returned to them." Amy said.

"I shall only grant this request if you will do something for me in return." Mephisto replied.

"What is your request?" Amy pondered.

"That you and Lee kill Lorden for everyone and everything on Elemas." He snapped his fingers and time resumed.

"I hope your plan worked Lee." Amy whispered to herself.

CHAPTER 10: Destiny

I woke up outside of the castle with my face in a cold river. I stood up and looked around at my current surroundings. I saw the bodies of my fallen friends in the river as well. I rubbed my chest because it was hurting me more then I had anticipated. One by one my comrades began to wake up and complain about the pain.

"Well not exactly the way I thought but it worked. I think this constitutes a win for our side. Lorden thinks we're dead and we're in the backyard of the castle." I said while trying to make them feel better.

"You bastard! If it wasn't for the fact that Lorden's spell is weakening on me I would have killed you all by now." Yura said.

"I can't believe I fell for your stupid spell Yura. That was a dirty trick." Rai said.

"Fuck off Rai. I don't feel like it right now. Plus we need to be thinking of a way back into the castle and rescue Amy before Lorden does anything." I looked at Yura and was amazed. Lorden's spell really was weakening because I could see the individual personalities at this point. The caring one was Yuki and the bitchy one was Pyra. With any luck the spell would stop at any minute giving us Yuki and Pyra back.

"What I can't believe is how strong Amy's become. I was giving a hundred percent in that fight and she bested me with one finger." Zarya said. I looked down at the river and decided that now would be the best time to tell them about the true destined ones.

"Guys I have a confession to make. In my travels I have discovered the true legend of Elemas. It turns out there are only two destined ones. Amy and I are the true destined ones. You were all told you were someone special who would banish the darkness when in actuality you were all just decoys. Your purpose in the legend is to give us a better shot at living. I'll understand if any of you want to quit here and go home." I said.

"Well I owe Lorden an ass kicking so I'm with you Lee." Yura said.

"Well it would look pretty bad if I quit here plus you need someone to come up with some battle tactics for you." Zarya said. Then the three of us looked towards Rai who was surprisingly silent.

"All my life I've been running. My parents were killed because Lorden found out they gave birth to me. They died protecting me thinking I was destined to do something great. I think killing Lorden is great enough for me. I'm in." Rai said.

"Well then I think I have a plan to get us in but one of us needs to be bait of some sort." Zarya said.

An hour later Yura started to fire her magic into the air and began making a lot of noise. Three guards ran out from the closed castle gate. They all looked like knights from hell. They noticed that our bodies were in the exact position they were in when they dumped us so they didn't bother to check to see if we were alive. I jumped up once the guards had passed me and I charged some energy into my hands.

"Sleepy thorns!" I fired a barrage of rose thorns at the trio and they were knocked out cold. Then Rai and Zarya got up and began to switch outfits with the guards. I then told Yura to change outfits with the last guard. She protested and said I needed it but I told her I'd rather take my chances. Once the three of them were ready we all headed for the open gates. I closed the doors behind us and then I gave the next set of instructions.

"Okay you three will go and find Amy and meet up with me in Lorden's throne room. I'll go find Lorden and keep tabs on him."

"One question Lee. Where are the prison cells and Lorden's throne room?" Rai asked.

"I don't know guess. Your the one who can run fast so why don't you go do some recon and give us the information?" I asked.

"I'm not thinking clearly yet. I'm sorry my death was harder on me then yours was on you." Rai took off in a blink of an eye. A few moments later he returned with four pieces of paper and handed them all out.

"Okay this is the map of the castle. I'm not sure if there are any traps set up because I was running to fast." I took the map and then headed for Lorden while the others went to go find Amy.

Amy was still worried my plan hadn't worked and herself now stuck her. That was one of her biggest fears, being alone. She also couldn't get something out of her head. When she stabbed me she heard me mutter something that sounded like I love you. She needed to know if I said that because of the plan or if I really meant it. But the first thing she had to do was break out of the room.

Zarya, Rai, and Yura split up to make the search easier for them. Zarya took the first floor, Rai had the second floor, and Yura had the third floor, while I was searching on the fourth floor for Lorden. Zarya had one of the hardest floors to search because of all the guards that were on watch. She had managed to implement a spell that turned her into a light mist. This made the searching go a lot faster then if she had to sneak passed every guard individually. Zarya had planned on meeting up with me as soon as she could so we could catch up on old times.

Just then she noticed that two of the guards began to shout and point towards her. They grabbed a jar and one of them created a whirlwind spell. The whirlwind engulfed her and trapped her within the wind. The wind forced her into the jar where the guard holding the jar closed the lid trapping Zarya in it.

"Don't even think about transforming back to normal because it'll kill you. This jar is magical and won't break under any circumstances." The guard said. They then started to head off for the dungeon when they heard something that sounded like footsteps. The two guards turned around in enough time to see Rai's halberd come in for a fatal hit and they both died instantly. Rai opened the jar and the mist formed into Zarya.

"Thank you. I couldn't have stayed in that mist form much longer and if I reverted back while still in the jar I would have died." Zarya said.

"No problem. I checked the first and second floor already and can't find Amy or Lorden. Let's go meet up with Lee on the fourth floor." Rai said as they headed towards the only set of stairs that led to the fourth floor.

I made my way up to the throne room's entrance. I peeked inside of the huge metal doors and saw Olman down on one knee with Lorden pacing in front of him angrily. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on what the two were talking about.

"God Damn it Olman! I told you not to kill Lee. I wanted to end him. I couldn't let Amy on to the fact that I'm ready to kill you for your disobedience. You should give me one good reason for me not to kill you here and now." Lorden said as he pulled his katana out and placed it by Olman's neck.

"I'm sorry, sir. Please have mercy on me. I destroyed the others as you wished and brought you that female alive. I honestly hadn't anticipated Lee letting himself die like that. I have a gift that might make you feel better. I managed to save this from the fight." Olman pulled out a jar filled with blood and Lorden was excited.

"Is this his heart?" Lorden asked.

"I got this special and I made sure it was still alive before presenting to you." Lorden took the jar and placed it to his ear. He then threw the jar at Olman and began to yell.

"You tricked me! This is just a jar of fucking blood." Lorden took his katana and cut Olman's head off. The two pieces hit the floor and then sank into the ground.

I tried to retrain myself from attacking him now when he wasn't expecting me. I also knew that if I tried to kill him now that I would fail and end up dying. I just wished that the others would hurry up and get here.

Yura was pissed that she ended up on the third floor because that was the guards' quarters. All the guards slept and lived on the third floor. This would logically be the best place for a prison cell to be. All Yura had to do know was sneak passed probably hundreds of guards and sneak Amy and her up to the fourth floor where I was waiting. Yura decided that she would have to use a spell to get passed everyone. The only problem was she didn't know any spells that were powerful enough but subtle enough. She began to think when all of a sudden one of the guards saw her and alerted some more guards. She decided to just charge through the small regime of guards by casting her shield spell. This caused a fire shield to engulf her. She just walked straight through the guards with her shield killing all but one of the guards, but he was left for dead with third degree burns all over his body.

That guard managed to get up and sound the alarm about five minutes after Yura left. Yura kept walking through the halls like she owned the place. Then the alarm rang through the empty halls of the castle. The floors began to rumble with activity. I was still spying on Lorden and didn't really notice that someone was behind me until they put their hand on my shoulder. I jumped and spun around to discover that it was Amy who had been there.

"Amy I'm so glad you're okay. Now that you're here we can take Lorden out once and for all. Are you ready for this?" I asked.

"Yeah but I wanted to ask you something first. When I stabbed you, you began to say I lo-" Amy was cut off by Rai showing up behind her. Zarya followed and said that they were also ready for this. Just then we saw Yura round the corner and she had blood dripping from her mouth.

"Yura!" I said in a soft voice. I ran over to her and caught her as she began to fall over.

"There all the guards are gone. You better fucking win. Arrows suck." I noticed that her back was covered in tiny arrows. They must have been poisoned because they were too small to do any real damage. I cradled Yura in my arms until I saw her eyes roll into the back of her head. I checked for a pulse but I couldn't find one. I closed Yura's eyes and laid her body down on the ground.

"I vow on Yura's last breath that I will kill Lorden for everything he has put Elemas through.

"Lee are you sure you're ready because it's only gonna be up to you and Amy. We'll help but there's not a whole lot we can do in there." Zarya said. Rai and Zarya then took off the armor that they had put on for a disguise. I walked over to the huge metal double doors and kick one of them in breaking it off the wall. Lorden perked up and looked towards the door. His face went from surprised to having a smile on it.

"Lee I didn't think you charge in here so soon. I figure you might have watched me for a little longer to see if you could find a weakness." Lorden said.

"So you knew the whole time? Why did you let me live the whole time instead of just killing me while I thought you didn't know I was alive?" I said while trying not to confuse myself.

"What fun would that be? I decided to wait for you to be ready and attack me first." Lorden said as Amy ran into the room and waiting by my side. Rai and Zarya followed but stood behind Amy and me.

"So Amy you finally realized you true potential. It's about fucking time." Lorden said with a change in tone.

"Well are you ready Lorden?" I said while pulling the earth-chaos blade out.

"Lorden? I'm not that little bitch Lorden. I'm The Nightmare rightful ruler of everything. That little fucker has been recently taking his body back."

"Wait that means Lorden is not our enemy?" I said while lowering my katana.

"In a matter of speaking yes. The Nightmare is your true opponent." Lorden said while his tone changed again.

"What's going on?" I yelled.

"Well simply put this would be a case of multiple personalities. I, Lorden, am the true owner of this body and your ancestor. I am the original destined one of Elemas. I was indeed the one who originally banished the darkness but when you were born my power's weakened and my body changed into what it is today."

"But why?" I asked. I was very interested at this point.

"I tried to find out why but in the process the seal that bound the darkness broke and to ensure that Elemas would be protected I absorbed the darkness into my own powers. I was once immune to the darkness but absorbing it quickly lowered my immunity to it. Thus the personality known as The Nightmare was born. I then fought to keep you alive so that you may kill me and banish the darkness forever." Lorden said.

"So all those times you left me alive and tried to help me get stronger you were really you."

"Yes, but it's your time to die." Lorden's personality was gone and The Nightmare was controlling the body.

"I'm going to kill you Nightmare!" I threatened.

"Please call me Lorden I love hearing that name." He said while pulling his katana out and charging at me. I quickly raised my katana in time to block the attack but it was still too strong. The attack knocked me off my feet and I flew backwards and hit the wall. I brought myself up to my feet again and prepared to attack.

"If this is all you got then you might as well kill yourself now." Lorden said. Amy pulled her katana out and charged but he managed to swipe her away with his right foot. She was kicked backwards and hit the wall opposite of mine. She hit her head though and was knocked out cold.

"Rai and Zarya go over and help her out. I'll deal with him." I ordered. Lorden began to charge and was three feet in front of me when he stopped. He looked me in the eyes and spoke.

"Kill me before Darkness destroys Elemas. I'm going to be gone from this point on. I'll try to hold some of his powers back internally. Please kill him and free my soul." I thrusted my katana towards his chest but it was too late. Lorden knocked my sword out of the way and jumped back.

"What the hell is happening? All my power is vanishing. That fucker is binding me from within his own binding. God damn that little fucker!" He charged and we began a duel that would go down in history.

Amy was just coming to while Rai was watching my fight and Zarya was treating her head wound.

"How long was I out?" Amy asked.

"About twenty minutes." Zarya answered. Amy stood up and picked her katana up.

"I have to help Lee out." She took a step and fell over.

"Your legs aren't fully healed yet. When Lorden kicked you he managed to break your left leg first, then he kicked you into the wall. It'll take me about five minutes to fix your leg. Start gathering all your energy I have a plan." Zarya said.

As for my fight I was beginning to tire. His attacks only became stronger and I didn't know how much longer I would last under these conditions. I lost focus and he managed to disarm me.

"Well now it looks like our game is over." He began to plunge his sword forward but was stopped mid-strike.

"You bastard." Yura was standing in the doorframe with her left hand extended. I looked at Lorden and saw a tiny arrow in his neck.

"Yura you're okay." I ran over to help her walk.

"No, I'm not but neither is he. The poison should give you at least a twenty-minute reprieve. He may have nearly unlimited energy but his body is only human. I'm going to take a nap now." Yura fell asleep in my arms so I carried her over to Rai and laid her down next to Amy.

"Lee come over here for a second I have a plan that will work." Zarya said. I bent over and she whispered the plan to me.

"But what about me? Won't I die as well?" I asked.

"You won't as long as Amy does her job right." Zarya said. I was still sitting down. The twenty minutes to rest was almost over and I still felt weak.

"All you have to do is stall and Zarya and I will do the rest. I'm almost ready to start my part." Amy said.

"Fine then let it be known. The final fight will end soon." I said.

I stood up as soon as we noticed Lorden's finger moving. The poison was wearing off and pretty soon nothing would be holding him back. I just hoped this would work. We only had one shot at this and if we failed everyone on Elemas would die.

"Amy begin the transfer process. Zarya and Rai protect her at all costs. Lastly please don't leave me here when it's my time to work." I said. Amy then teleported everyone but Lorden and myself away to the void. Then Lorden was able to move once again.

"That was annoying but it's all good. Now we don't have anymore distractions to interfere with our battle."

"Bring it. I guarantee I'll win this fight. I may not live but I'll win this fight." He charged at me and began part two of our sword-fighting duel.

Meanwhile Amy, Zarya, Rai, and the supposedly dead Yura appeared in the void.

"Are you sure about this Zarya?" Amy asked.

"Yes just begin the transfer." Zarya said. Amy began to release enormous amounts of energy from the void that pierced the dimensions and opened a vortex on Elemas. Amy then began to move everyone and everything from Elemas to the void. Zarya and Rai combined there magic to knock everyone on Elemas out. They were basically suspended in time and had no idea what was happening. When they woke up everything would be back to normal. Zarya's plan was to create a new Elemas for everyone to live peacefully on while destroying the old one, but to do that they would have to safely move everyone off Elemas in order to destroy it. My part was to create the new Elemas using my earth element. The two planets would normally crash together destroying both of them but I would put a shield of pure chaos around the new Elemas protecting it. The shield would successfully destroy the evil on the old Elemas while protecting the new one. They were only about twenty percent done with the transfer process.

"Give up Lee." Lorden said while trying to slash my arm. I jumped back and block his next attack. I had to resist using any magic whatsoever because creating a new planet would take everything I had. In about an hour I had to start the ritual and then Amy would teleport me to the void where I would then create the chaos shield. All I had to do was survive an hour, which was easier said then done. I had already summoned my armor and it had already begun to wear out. I only wished that I could think of a way to stall. Just then something Dia said hit me. My armor had powers attributed to my element, which is earth. Perhaps I could become one with the earth like Olman did when he died.

I focused on my objective and the results began to show immediately. I began to sink into the earth. The earth was up to my shins before I realized that my plan had worked. I could become one with the planet and travel through it to appear anywhere I wanted. I was quickly submerged under the earth and in a blink of an eye I was at Terra's shrine. Lorden was shouting and yelling because he lost me. He didn't even know where to start looking for me and he had an entire planet to search. He released an enormous mount of dark energy in frustration. The castle he was in disintegrated from the tremendous power released.

Amy was beginning to weaken and the process was slowed.

"I don't know how much longer I can do this for Zarya." Amy said.

"We're almost done. We just need to keep the gate open until Lee finishes his part. We have finished most of our part. Basically we are waiting for Lee." Zarya said.

At Terra's shrine I had set up the ritual Zarya told me to do when the ground shook and Terra appeared.

"Lee do you know what you're doing? This will kill everything if you mess it up." Terra said.

"Terra you need to leave Elemas and wait for me to make the new planet. Everyone was safely transported to the void. I just need to start this ritual and it should finish itself. I don't have a lot of time before Lorden finds me." I said while drawing symbols in the ground with my finger. Terra said good-bye as he sank back into the earth. He was right about the risks involved. If I made even the tiniest mistake everyone could die. I finished making my ritual circle and sat down in the center of it. I began focusing all my earth energy into the circle and I amazed myself. I hadn't realized how much energy I actually had until right now. When I first got here I was weak and needed protecting. Now I was protecting the whole planet and only the few of us knew it was me who'd save Elemas. Would no one know how hard we fought to protect this world? I started to become lost in my own thoughts and lost focus on the ritual.

"Shit. Come on Lee focus on the objective." I said while shaking my head and continuing the ritual. I closed my eyes and returned to gathering as much energy as I could. I then felt the earth shake and it was getting closer.

"Fuck he found me already. Just a little more power." I thought as I picked the pace up. The cave began to crumble as I was just finishing up. I created a little shield to protect the ritual and myself from the cave in.

"Get out here you piece of shit!" Lorden yelled. I managed to run out of the cave just as the rest of it fell. My two shields that I just created were instantly destroyed. I looked down at the rubble where the ritual was already started. Even Lorden could feel the planet's energy disappearing into my circle. It then shot a beam of green light into the air and formed a ball that began to increase dramatically in size at an alarming rate.

"It's too late Lorden. I've already begun the planet creation ritual. We won." I said.

"I may not survive but I'll make sure you live horribly in the next few moments." Lorden said.

"Amy I could use your help now." I called out.

"I've also done some planning. I put a barrier around Elemas. Nothing else can leave for the void. This is it. You and me with no one else left. Nothing can save you now!" Lorden said while he lifted his blade above his head and I looked up in fear. Then I realized something that made me laugh. I saw the sun setting.

"What's so fucking funny?" Lorden demanded.

"This." I looked up and vanished with the green flash.

"Nooooooooooo!" Lorden yelled as my new planet destroyed the old one. My chaos barrier was surprisingly strong even though I wasn't constantly putting energy into it.

In the void they all felt the destruction of the old and creation of the new Elemas. Amy and Zarya began to cry because I hadn't made it or at least they thought I didn't.

"Ladies, ladies cheer up. We have a planet to repopulate." Rai said intentionally making it sound wrong.

"Rai once Elemas is back to normal, I'm going to kick your ass." Zarya said. They all felt that the new Elemas was ready to live on. Amy used the last bit of her powers to put everyone back to where they originally were. The new Elemas was exactly the same but with no Lorden to interfere with the balance.

I landed in the center of Times Square and noticed that my clothes were back to normal. I raised my arm and yelled return but nothing happened. Some people looked at me like I was crazy and avoided walking by me. I yelled it again and again but nothing happened. I fell to my knees and started to punch the ground until my knuckles were bloody and raw. I did notice that my body was more toned now then when I had originally left for Elemas. About five minutes had passed and Amy appeared next to me.

"Miss me Lee." Amy said. Her hair was longer and it was still black but the streaks were gone.

"Yes I have. I'm sorry. Lorden blocked the Void so I couldn't get there and I was lucky I remembered about the flash." I said. I didn't care about how many people were looking at us. Amy had her assassin's robes on and her katana was in a visible sheath.

"Well you know that aging over there is the same as if it was in this world. I'm still twenty-two in this world but over a thousand years in Elemas. You've been gone for almost five hundred years in Elemas time. We need your help again. It turns out Lorden did create a barrier around Elemas but when we transferred everyone back to it, wormholes started to appear to this world." Amy said.

"So the green flash isn't the only way there anymore?" I asked.

"Not exactly. The green flash is only one of the two ways to get to Elemas from Earth. But to get from Elemas to here all you'd have to do is find a wormhole." She said.

"Well is Lorden alive?" I asked as I heard a police siren heading to where we were.

"Do you want to go somewhere quieter?" She asked.

"Yes please hurry on that." I said. She grabbed me and we vanished into the void.

"We're in the void so we're safe." She hugged me and apologized for such a serious conversation. "I had to put that front on so I looked somewhat normal on Earth. But anyways Lorden is dead, we think, but there is a new evil in Elemas and this one wants both Earth and Elemas. He has already set-up several bases in Elemas and Earth. I also wanted to ask you something totally unrelated to everything. When I killed you in front of Olman you muttered I love you. Was that for real or acting?" Amy asked.

"Well in all honestly both. I meant it but no one else needed to know at the time. Now let's go save the two worlds." Amy teleported us from the void to the brand new Elemas I had created. Thus another chapter in my life ends and another begins.