I sat upon the throne.
I saw the last light erased as the doors closed.
And my world erupted in flame.
And in the flame memories flickered and danced in my sight and in my mind.
"See? It is as I have foretold. This is what remains of the Old One, now dead and his power torn asunder. Stay here my lord, the Witch and I shall see what we can salvage of this power. No, no, let us, she is used to wild and primal power, whilst I am accustom to corpses."
"We built our Kingdom on this power! We cannot let it fade, not like this. There is now something worse than the colorless fog out there, we cannot be defenseless against it. I shall see if we can create a new flame. The first came from the old one, and was linked to its nature. The key to a new fire must lie with Demons..."
"Magnificent… You are the righteous successor to Gwyn, the new Great Lord."
"Once, there was a king who sacrificed himself to satiate a primordial fire from which he and his kind drew power from. However, a covetous man wanted this power all to himself, and so he slaughtered the king. He now stands where the rightful king should be, where you should be."
"And the arrogant man struck down the saint, and built a throne upon that place. From there he rules, his corrupting influence needs to be purified."
"This was the right choice. Seal it away and let it remain deprived of fuel."
"Yes my King, a throne. But not just any throne, the true throne. If you sit upon it you will have the power to combat this curse"
"Great Sovereign, take your throne. What lies ahead, only you can see."
Were these all mine, or the fires? If mine, how often had I been the monarch, how often had I been "chosen"?
How often did I bring a blade to my own neck?
I feel so tired
The children of the dark have perished, and the lurker in the abyss is no more. Shall the cycle continue even then? Perhaps, perhaps not. Either way, I may now rest until the cycle begins anew, however long that may be.
"This is the worst day ever."
That's all I could think as I looked over to where Sasuke and Naruto were sleeping. That fight with that Orochimaru guy almost killed us; the fact that we're still alive is all thanks to Sasuke's courage…. And Naruto's. But still, what was with that mark on the back of his neck. Orochimaru bit him, that mark appears, and he just leaves. But I guess I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. We're alive, and Sasuke and Naruto will wake up soon. Hopefully.
Still, it's a good thing I found this giant tree. The roots overhead provide excellent cover from anything above us, and the large field beyond was perfect for setting up a few traps. A squirrel almost ran into one and set it off, but I scarred it off with a kunai. Still one thing that's bugging me is that… thing… further into the tree. It looks like two large doors, but made of stone and no clear way to open them. It appears to be part of a larger structure but it's hidden by more roots.
I really couldn't think about what it could be. I really couldn't think about much anyway
I feel so tired
"Some lookout, you're half asleep."
No!
*Thump*
Strange, did that noise come from outside? Is it time already?
How odd that I should still be aware of the previous cycle this time around. From what I had gleaned from the fire I tend to forget the last one.
If those memories were mine, of course.
I raised myself from my throne and moved towards the doors that I knew were just ahead.
I placed my hands upon the door and gave an experimental push. Whatever impacted the doors had jarred them loose, and with a great heave I opened the doors.
And there was light.
*Thump*
"Lee!"
I couldn't believe it, how such a small sound could come from something so devastating. Lee had been knocked deep into the tree, and hit the stone within. I could tell that on top of the injuries he received and that vibration technique used by that Sound Ninja's gauntlet that the impact did him no favors.
I tried to fight back, I did. I was doing really well too. After cutting my hair with the kunai and using a few substitution jutsus I was able to get a hit on one of the three, Zaku I think his name was. But the one hunched over, Dosu, decided to "punish" me for resisting by hitting Lee again while he was down. The worst part was he didn't stop.
"Stop it! Stop it! You've already won! Leave Lee alone!"
Dosu had by then made his way further into the tree to continue hurting Lee. He turned his head to face mine, "Now, now, a lesson needs to be learned here; his last though I'm afraid."
"No! Stop it!"
Just then a loud noise, stone grinding against stone, came from the tree. The stone doors were opening. I could see Dosu looking inside and stepping back with shock. After a few moments I could see why.
A large Imposing figure stepped out of the space within. He, the broad shoulders and chest indicated that well enough, was wearing what looked like steel plated armor on his chest and arms, with what looked to be simple pants and leather boots. Across the shoulders and back was white fur, and around his neck and rear portion of his waist was an elaborate teal cloth. His helm seemed to be steel as well, with the slots for eyes so thin she couldn't see within, with a kind of crest on top of it.
The figure looked around the area, as If taking in everything he was seeing, especially on Dosu and Lee. Finally he spoke.
"What is going on here, may I ask?"
A just question I felt. As I was opening the doors I hear gasps of pain, shouts and pleads of mercy, a cold rebuttal, and had come to assume the worst. The Throne sat deep in the mountain castle Drangleic was built on, and there was significant effort involved in reaching it. Therefore for there to be sounds of struggle gave only few possibilities. Someone trying to take the throne, and a group of defenders trying to repel him. Or a cult dedicated to that hateful creature Nashandra and sacrificing others here at the place of her defeat. Equally grim scenarios played in my head when I opened the door.
That was not what I found.
What I found was children
not one of them looked a day over thirteen, and many of them were dressed in a most ridiculous fashion. Bandages covering the entire head and an overly large shirt, Patterned print scarfs reminiscent of a cow, green body suits, orange body suits, boots with the toes exposed, scarlet dress, blue high collared shirt, none of this attire screamed warrior. Yet the evidence before me suggests that they were indeed trying to murder one another. One thing I did notice was they were all wearing headbands with an engraved metal plate, one type had a musical note while the other had... some form of embellished spiral.
I need answers and I need them now.
"Well, Whats happening here? Why does this one," I motioned to the boy in green, "Look like someone's been bludgeoning him"
The hunched over boy with the bandages seemed to regain his composure first, "That is quite frankly none of your concern. I don't know what you were doing in there, but this forest has been sectioned off for the Chunin exam, if you're not a proctor it would be in your best interest to leave," stepping forward and brandishing an odd gauntlet as he finished.
My head ached when he said that word before exam. It was not a word I recognized, and yet reverberating through my mind I felt the meaning of the word... somehow. The word approximates to middle rank something, but what that something was I wasn't sure. As the rest of his sentence began to register I noticed with surprise that, indeed, I had awoken to a forest, and not inside the mountain below Drangleic castle.
Examination of this situation can wait, best deal with these children
"I know nothing of this Chunin exam you speak of, but your attempt to intimidate me is laughable child."
Another boy farther back, raised his arms and faced his palms towards me. Palms with holes in them. "We're not children!" he yelled.
Quickly I managed to dodge sideways, missing an invisible blast ravage the spot I once stood. This boy is impressive; to be able use Emit Force without a talisman or chime to channel his faith requires vocation of the highest caliber. Very well, I shall have to take this seriously.
Unsheathing my blade I dashed towards the boy, quickly closing the distance. He tried to use Emit Force again and like before I rolled out of the way and continuing my charge. With me just inches away from a good slash I saw him do some motions with his hands, but I payed little mind to it. Now in range I swung my sword and sliced him twain, and to the earth fell...
A log?
There were many things I expected to happen when I cut him... Him suddenly turning into a log was not one of them. Nor did I expect to be hit by an Emitted Force launched by the miraculously unhurt boy off to my left. Turning to look at him I noticed the others with the musical note engraving had joined him
If they could all do that this had the potential to be an annoying fight.
"What's with this man?"
First he knows nothing of the Chunin exam, then he calls that Dosu guy a kid, then he seems confused by the substitution jutsu, and then theirs that sword of his. Its curved like most blades, but it seems far more curved, and the blade gets really wide before it tappers off at the tip. But what really caught my eye was the hilt. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, with intricate patterns of gold and jewels embedded in it. It looked like it should be displayed on a wall or in a museum, not to be used as a weapon. Either way he wasn't doing any damage, with Zaku getting out of the way like that. The other two sound ninja were now with their comrade, and facing the man.
Dosu chuckled to himself, "You've shown that that sword you carry isn't for show, and being able to move that quickly with that armor must mean your physical condition is excellent. However," Dosu raised his gauntlet, "With that alone, I'm afraid you'll be no match for us."
The man then stood up straight and extended his hand palm up. They, along with me, seemed rather confused by the action, until his hand burst into flame. A ball of fire was formed, which he then threw at the group. they moved back out of the way to avoid the fireball, but as it hit the ground the ball burst, spraying lava, of all things, towards the sound ninja. A few of the droplets made contact, catching their cloths on fire and eliciting screams of pain
"This is impossible, he didn't make any hand signs! While some jutsu can be used without hand signs it requires a large amount of concentration and near jonin level skill, and a simple substitution jutsu seemed to confuse him. And that jutsu... I've never heard of a jutsu that produced lava as an aftereffect!"
Dosu seemed to regain his composure first, after putting himself out of course.
"You managed to catch us by surprise. Congratulations, but you wont get a second shot-"
The mans fist connected to Dosu's face launching the latter back, having closed the distance while Dosu was putting out his clothing.
"Why does this child feel the need to talk through this fight, its all well and good to gloat but this is distracting."
The boy seems shocked by this development as well, strange. Being distracted in battle is a dangerous thing, and talking is takes far too much personal attention. No one I've fought talked this much, in fact very few of them spoke at all. Perhaps I should have tried speaking to them though. Many of them that could probably talk had sympathetic reasons for doing what they though, like Quelaag, and Kirk... and Quelaag, and Kirk...
Who are they? Never mind.
Where was I? Ah yes the children. They seemed rather upset by me punching their apparent leader in the face. I suppose killing a child is still rather hard for me to think about, or else I would have used my blade. But something strange happened, they seem to surprised and shocked by something.
Suddenly I felt a cold and disgusting sensation some was behind me.
"Sasuke!"
I turned my head back, There was the blue shirted boy, but a foulness emanated from him, and black markings snaked across his body
"Sakura... Who did this to you?"
Foul, cold, and utterly familiar.
The boy was Cursed.
Fantastic.