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Alot of you might not know what it is, where it came from, or why it's there, but it exists and you'll find it one day, probably as you scour a Hugel field that's at the very top and at the very left of our tiny world, the one that's half alive and half dead. You'll find a grey tower surounded by deadly black mountains that go nicely with the deep red clouds swirling about the top.
Deffinetally a contrast to the sandy, and flourishing field filled with the mini-tornados commonly known as 'Breeze', The Man-eating plants wonderfully nick-named 'Geographer', the Demon Punguses who come in shades of light brown instead of purple like thier brothers in Aldebaran. And then theres the Plasmas that come in many shades of Blue, Green, Purple, Red, and Yellow. But alas this perfect scene, with its perfect serenity must be broken at some point.
"Earth Spike!" A strong feminine voice yelled, a sage with long,
moonlight colored hair that flowed loosely to reach her mid back. A black cat
doll seemd to be glued onto her head. Her emerald eyes shone with
determination and strength.
The spike shot up from ground, piercing the Breeze's center, it wobbled a bit then it dramatically exploded.
The sage plopped to the groud with great enthusiasm picking up a green herb,
a four leaf clover, and a un-identafiable object. She gave a huge grin to
the object as she ran over to a Whitesmith leaning against one of the rocks.
"Yasu! Yasu! I think I got it this time!" The sky headed whitesmith looked
over at her friend with calm crysteline eyes.
"Really now Aya, let's see." The smith took the object from the sage's hand,
and began to examine it with a magnifier. "It seems you got it Aya, a
Romantic Leaf!" The sage clapped in joy and paused for a moment to scream
into the minds of her guild mates that she had gotten the leaf for the
guild's crusader, Isamu.
Since Yasu was the fastest with her cart boost, went on ahead and left Aya to level a bit. As Aya was looking for a blue plasma she noticed a yellowish object sticking out of the ground. Getting, down on her knees, she began to dig it out.
Immediatly pulling out a yellow gem, she cast Deluge, a box with blue walls rose out of the ground and filled with water in what seemed like seconds.
The pleasantly cool water splashed about as she dunked the item into the water not caring it the glove-like objects that were part of her uniform got soaked in the process. What she pulled out shocked and amazed her.
It was BONE real live bone!From what she didn't want to know. What amazed her was that it seemd like a broken off armor piece, like from what she'd seen on Isamu.
Looking at the grey tower then back down to the bone/armor thing, she had
a preety good guess as to where it came from, Thanatos, The ruler of
Thanatos tower, many of his minions resided in the Hugel, Einbroch, Einbench,
and even some Yuno fields. Some say he was more powerful then the
Dark Lord himself.
Swallowing the lump in her throat she decided to do something that, she knew she'd regret. She was going to return Thanatos's armor.
For weeks she had spent studying the tower, checking out any book she could from all the libraries and sitting next to the tower itself. There was only one recorded time in ALL of migard where somebody made it up to the top, and lived.
That person was a talented swordsman, when he went back UP to face the dreaded Thanatos, he was killed, his body cast down through the clous that seemed as though they were made of evaporated blood. afterwards he gained a sort of demonic sense about him. Now known as Doppleganger, he resides in the third, and sometimes fourth level of Geffen Dungeon, reeking havoc upon any adventurer that might wander in.
Four guild mates decided to help her in the quest to bring back Thana's armor piece among them were Isamu, and Yasu, the others were Amaya, a Gypsy with the ability to launch her Arrow Vulcan twice in a mere second. And Saiyuri, a Wizard that taught Aya how to cast spells instantly, a skill supposedly lost ages ago.
They all believed beyond a doubt, that if they didn't return it, Thanatos would be cross. The thought of a powerful being running around migard looking for his armor piece was preety scary. So the Group followed Aya to the tiny area that served as a bridge from 'normal land' to Thanatos Tower.
As they scrambled along the rough path twoards the entrance all but Aya,
who was used to it, got a sence of forboding like no other. They entered the
tower which reminded them a bit of the Sage academy in Yuno. They were shocked
too see it in in practically perfect condition, a Alice hummed a tune
and walked passed them oblivious to the intruders in her masters home.
A tiny angel with her ebony hair tied up hopped up to them on a harp.
"What are you doing in Thanatos's tower!" she screeched. Aya stepped
forward and showed her the piece of armor clutching it tightly, she'd read
those novels where people ripped things out of the main characters hands,
not gonna fall for that trick, oh no.
"We're here to return this piece of armor to Thanatos..." she stated
nervously the books never mentioned this monster, and she could be dangerous.
"Why didn't you say so? Come along then watch your step, don't mess up the
carpet!" She called back commands to them the whole time killing Mimics,
Ridewords and Plasmas with a few whacks from her harp.
"This is where I get off but it's also where some of the fighting for you begins, I'm sorry to say, but it's almost impossible to make it to the boss even with fly wings, expecaily if you're in a party." She said glancing at each and every one of them. As if sealing each of them to certain death.
"Each level is harder and harder, and the
12th is FILLED with so many monsters I don't know HOW they live up there"
She complained, as if a 24/7 party was going on up there and she was that
nieghbor trying to get some sleep.
"Well, I shouldn't hold you up, be careful, and don't die!" with that she hopped off. As theyclimbed the steps to the next level Aya swore she saw a sword encased in stone with a shield infront of it.
The first thing they encountered when they finished thier treck up the huge staircase was a figure with wings like a angel wearing a ragged robe covering most of its face, red eyes peered at them, piercing thier very soul, a sword latched in it's hands, at the bottom of the robe you can see specks of light, almost like bubbles of molten lava.
"I heard of this, it's a retribution, like a Crusader only cooler looking"
Isamu boasted on his knowledge of such a creature. "Hn" the retribution
commented as it charged at them full force, robes flapping, as Isamu was
about to strike. Aya shoved the bone armor piece at the Retribution, as if
she were a priest putting a amulet on a undead Munak to banish it "We're
trying to return this to Thanatos!" she loudly, and quickly stated, anything
to stop the impending carnage.
"Hn" The retribution said as it walked away, they stood there in shock,
it whirled around glanced at them, then walked forward a step, and repeated.
"I think it wants us to follow him" Amaya stated clutching her Chemeti to
her chest. So they slowly followed the strange human-like creature.
"Follow the Red carpet hall!" Saiyuri sang in a joking tone as she skipped through the second level of the tower, litterally dancing circles around thier new, seemingly mute friend. The Deathwoods and the Ancient mimics were killed off so slowly it took a good 5 minuets, even though there wern't that many.
They reached the door they saw a display of shields, spears and hammers.
Before they left Each gave a quick bow to the retribution in thanks and
slepped through the giant door. Saiyuri decided to stay behind with her
Retribution friend, when she found out he CAN talk, Saiyuri, being the wierd
one that she is, made it her mission to make him a 'happy swordie' as she
put it.
In comparison to the previous two, this one seemed, broken down. Planks of
wood were scattered across this level, some far apart, others close together,
many were even built like docks or platforms, there were no aquaintances
on THIS level.
By using the maps Aya coppied from her books, they found the stair case
easily, though they had to rest twice due to unlucky monster encounters.
The fourth level wasn't all that different from the third, though this time
they met a observation, an angel-like monster with what some may say was a
english accent.
"So you're the dirty human bunch sniveling around the tower trying to return the masters armor piece arn't you? Well, come along then, don't got all day, the stairs don't get up and waltz on over to you!" The Observation called as he bounced along the stone floor,light as a feather.
Monsters suprisingly left them alone, but that could be because of the small army of observations that followed them. as they got closer the the Level 5 portal, they slowly disapated till only the one that greeted them was left.
As they walked along they noticed holes in the floor, and more cracks, it
seemed as though the further they went, the older the place got, then they
got to the portal the Observation handed Aya a gold accessory, "Show
that to any other observation and they'll iether help you or leave you alone,
I need to go back to my brother now, don't cause trouble!" and thier
odd new 'friend' hopped off, like the others before him.
The fith level proved to be VERY complicated, the accessory made sure not only observations stayed away, but also a choice few of other monsters, this was a great relief to the group.
This level was in the same fashion of the latter levels, old and in ruin,
though this particular one seemed to have gears and gadgets still functioning
just as well as the day they were made. After what seemed like HOURS
they came to the staircase to rest.
A dog like creature ran up to them, moving it's bulging stomach up only to have it flop back down again, it wore a blank white mask with two black eye sockets, a huge difference from the deep chocolate brown of its fur.
It brought its arms up, the masked face looking up to the ceiling as if it
was calling out, and brought it down again upon the crusader's head. "Hey"
Isamu cried as he brandished his Fireblend and started battling the dog-like
shadow creature.
In the end Isamu won, as he searched through his pile of spoils a necklace caught his eye. It was a odd thing, with a single, thin leather twine holding a lage silver piece that curved upward like a bent out C and moved out to look like a O inside the circle was a stone. Shinning brigther then any emerald could while inside of THAT was a thin strip of Onyx, darker then the blackest of nights.
It looked like a cat eye, Isamu always trying to be the funny one, shoved it in Aya's face and screamed 'MREOW!' Aya let out a tiny shriek and performed a move that would but a Assassin's backslide to shame. When she noticed Isamu chuckling and putting on the amulet. She screamed at him and flung her wand at his head.
"Isamu, I don't think you should keep that..." The whitesmith commented
while staring at the old necklace. "You're just jellous Yasu cause I found
a expensive item and you didn't!" Isamu stated proudly and marched up the
stairs. While the others followed him. The whitesmith stayed behind a while,
the looked to the hard stone floor and whispered, "The Fragment of Agony...".
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Chapter one done!