Chapter 1: End of the cycle.
It was the end of yet another cycle. The gods of Harmony and Discord were summoned to the throne of Shinryu. It was a round area filled with crystals of all shapes and sizes and in every color of the rainbow and some colors only the gods could see.
And there I, Cid of the Lufaine, was trying my hardest to make myself comfortable on a crystal chair. Not the softest material in the world, mind you.
It was the usual after battle report, given every thousandth cycle. But not this time. This was the fifth cycle, though it was infinately more so. Every now and again even the gods and Shinryu would forget the order and the count would begin anew.
"Cosmos, you are being tried on count of assisting the warrior Shantotto in her escape from the cycle." said Shinryu, not really moving his lips, he didn't have lips, but telepathiclly as all god-dragons do, Kaiser, for instance or Yiazmat when he wasn't cycloning everything to gods know where. "Due to your failure to stop her you have caused a tear in the Rift."
I shook a little at the thought. The Void held many things. None of them pleasant. Normally, the void is left alone. The Cloud of Darkness and Exdeath make only small tears, not enough to damage the cycle or bring anything with them.
The last time the Void was torn open was when the warriors of Hydaelyn tried to escape. They met their end before Enuo and Shinryu had to step in. Since then no warriors from the world have been summoned.
"I plead guilty" said Cosmos, in her usual perfect pitch voice, her beauty so raidiant, you could say she glowed. Goddess of harmony and neat freak was actually being beat to death by Garland at the time because her main guard was escaping and the other was fending off every other Chaos warrior, probably while ranting about light and goodness. But that didn't stop her.
"Then I, Shinryu Di Kaiser, sentence you to life in the Eternal Cycle!" Spoke the dragon, in his I'm almighty and you know it tone. Never did get used to that. Its like his voice is everywhere and nowhere at once. He also has voices that come together as one.
"Bwahaha" laughed Chaos, god of discord known for his off key singing voice and living in the middle of a volcano with his "roomate" Garland. Why they haven't just come out, I'll never know. We all know, Chaos, its okay.
Cosmos was taken aback by such a sentence. Why? It was expected of her to be. It was really nothing at all to her, being immortal, but that's how it is.
"And, in addition no warriors from the same world will participate in the next cycle and any yet to come." said Shinryu. I could almost hear Cosmos squeal that another world had been spared from fighting. Two in the last ten thousand wasn't bad.
It came time for me to give my report. Each cycle causes damage to the world we use, and as such needs repairing. I've created the gates to minimize damage to the main world, but if a gate is destroyed...
"The tear in the Void is massive, I'm afraid we're going to have to call off the next cycle. That is, unless you want something like Enuo coming out again."
"You think I would be foolish enough to allow him into my domain?"
"Didn't stop him from coming in uninvited last time, did it?"
"Human, you will know your place, lest your place be the depths of the very Void you speak of!"
"Well then, you should find a new place for your cycle then, cause this one's out for at least one. That's how about as long as it'll take for me to stitch up this tear." He knows very well I can get out of there. I'm as immortal as the gods that float around me and he knows it.
"Hmph very well" the dragon grunted, in his very disatisfied voice. I like to think he ate a very constipated person to get that voice.
Then a flash of bright light enveloped us. Its always bright light. Can't there be bright darkness? Not all dark is dark.
When I was not blinded by light, I was floating, above an island with the most massive of stadiums I had ever seen.
"This is the Island of Light and Dark." Said Shinryu, "it lies beyond the Void but not beyond time, that is a different area entirely. It is here that the next cycle will take place. Cosmos, Chaos, I want you to summon as many warriors as you wish. From any world you can."
"If I may ask, why do ask for so many warriors?" asked the goddess.
"This place, it has its own rules. They are not like our own and its powers are equal to mine, I cannot change it, so we will follow them. The most important of these rules is that we cannot fully erase the memories of the warriors, the second is that battles must be fought one on one in that arena."
"And this all means?" I asked.
"This means that the whole cycle will be held in a tournament fashion, with the winner being of either Cosmos or Chaos. Go now, summon your warriors!" Shinryu then turned to me, "Now, fix the stadium, it has broken from disuse. Then you will repair the damage to my world."
"You know I'm a scholar, not an engineer right?"