A purple demon floated idly, observing the area he was in with keen eyes of the same odd color. He stood at the top of Archimedia's great volcano, multiple scarves dancing in the heated wind. Demons were resting and getting their muscles relaxed in the lava, and one of the wolvish demons approached Duel.
"We've captured an intruder, sir." The grey-furred garou gruffly spoke.
"..." Duel was silent for a moment, the mild chatter of those resting filling the air instead. "Bring him here." He finally spoke.
"As you command." With that the garou walked off again.
Duel resumed his eerily silent watch over his men. He already knew who the intruder was; His sword could have told anyone that easily. The question was what such a fool would be doing alone in Duel's of all people's territory. Expansive as it was, the boundaries were clearly marked with walls Duel had overseen construction of himself.
"Perhaps the walls have worn in the past centuries..." He thought to himself. The ancient demon quickly dismissed the thought as his well-tuned ears heard multiple footsteps approaching. Not bothering to turn to face the nearby demons. Duel blinked, realizing that the energy coming from one of the beings was different from that of a demon... For one, it was much weaker, and secondly, the large fragment of power was coming from a centralized part of the being's body, perhaps a small stone.
"We brought the intruder as you ordered." The same grey garou spoke.
"Leave him. You may return to your daily business." Duel spoke quietly to the garous behind him. They nodded and left, their prisoner simply standing behind Duel. "Of what mindset could have possibly brought a being such as yourself to Elyos, land of the demons? And to my territory nonetheless?"
"I want you to retrieve the orbs for me." The intruder coolly responded.
"You intrude on my land and then order me around?" Duel found himself scoffing; a rare thing for the ancient demon. "You are either a fool, brave or both."
"What if I told you I could give you a service that would prove useful to you?"
"Being?"
"Promise of reviving your race."
"You think I have not tried to?" Duel's voice hid his irked feelings. A stranger had come to his land not only ordering him around but making claims straight out of the legends Duel was from himself. "It is as foolish to try as you are for even suggesting it."
"Does it sound as foolish when I have a fragment of the soul stone in a compartment of my armor?" The intruder smugly said.
"..."
"I am sure that an ancient demon such as yourself can sense the sort of energy that the soul stone- or even fragments- gives off." Duel and this intruder both knew this statement to be true. The demon turned to face whoever this person was and was greeted with a smirking, red-clad man. His helm covered his eyes completely, and one would wonder how it could be possible to see out of such a thing, yet lo and behold, Ashtaroth did just that. "I can tell you where the other 5 fragments of this soul stone are, if you can retrieve them for me."
"Very well." Duel spoke curtly. "I will consider the terms of your proposal."
Duel soon found himself to running the intruder's, whose name the demon found to be Ashtaroth, errand. Before leaving, having not completely trusting the man, Duel ordered two berserkers to keep watch over their territory's guest.
Opening a portal, Duel flew through it with speed and grace expected with an ancient demon such as himself. He used a bit more of his energy than normal to give the portal the capability to travel to Elyos; few people knew about Duel's ability to do that, seeing as he had rarely any use to travel to the world of the creatures of light since the days when his species was abundant and they would often go on mutation raids, morphing local life forms into what humans had deemed "monsters". Duel found himself exiting at the capitol of the Dwarven Empire: Thunder Hammer, the place where Ashtaroth had told him that the Grand Chase- and the remaining 5 orbs- would be.
"Who is that?" A red headed swordswoman said, pointing at Duel with her Ssangeom. "He doesn't look like a dwarf. Where did he come from?"
"Give me the orbs." Duel curtly spoke.
"What? Who are you to demand them?" The short purple mage of the group spoke. "And how did you know about them anyway?"
"...Looks like I'll just have to take them anyway." Duel sighed a little bit as a firebolt pathetically disappeared on his armor.
Arme fired off large amounts of the flaming magic while Lire planted her feet and shot a volley of arrows at the demon. Elesis, Sieghart, and Ronan began charging at Duel, Elesis charging a powerful skill, Sieghart entering rage, and Ronan calling his dragon. Ryan transformed into the Magus Dan, Amy called forth the powers of acting, donning her pink dinosaur outfit, and Jin charged his burning. Finally, Lass turned invisible before encroaching on the demon.
"Hmph." Duel scoffed and released a volley of orbs, knocking back Elesis and Sieghart. Mari brought out her robot sidekick KORMET and went forth to attack the demon, KORMET blocking the orbs that came to her carefully. Lire and Arme continued their long range attacks until both had enough mana to cast a high power spell. Arme cast Electric Spark; Lire, Void Shot. The attacks were brushed off by their target, said demon charging Soul Strike. After a few seconds he released 10 purple orbs, each of them homing in on one of the Grand Chase members.
Using the abilities of his sword, Transcendence, Duel determined which of the combatants were carrying the items he was there to hunt. It was the icy theif who carried the 5 shards. Duel focussed his attacks on him. Even though he was invisible to the eye, he was not hidden from the demon. He could sense the human-demon hybrid wherever he was in the room. Duel charged off another volley of orbs and fired them straight into the theif's path. He tried stopping but found himself too late, getting attacked by the orbs.
"Gah!" He exclaimed as the orbs knocked the Soul Stone shards from his pouch. Quickly, Duel used Transcendence's magic to teleport the fragments to a pocket-like compartment in his armor. The chase, having not realized the orbs had been taken by Duel, still continued to fight him.
"Hah... hah..." The entirety of the Grand Chase was completely exhausted. The enemy before them had such strength that was only in the dreams of the group. Even Sieghart had found trouble keeping up with the onslaught of orbs that had come their way.
"You're stronger than you look..." Duel said in a seemingly patronizing way.
"Eclipse!" The voice of a wanderer shouted as Zero ran into the area. Duel cast a quick glance, recognizing the energy emanating from the wanderer.
"What is this?" The demon asked, a bit startled. "I sense you are one of our kind. But how? Regardless, the orbs are in my hand now. Farewell."
Opening another portal, Duel returned to his dimension and territory in Elyos. Silently he floated in place, again at the top of the volcano, weighing his options. Should he seize the last orb from Ashtaroth? Or trust the intruder with the other five? Forming the soul stone in his own hands could be dangerous, the power in them having a tendency to react badly with demons. But trusting the intruder with one? Duel hardly knew anything about the man...
Reluctantly, Duel found himself bringing the orbs to Ashtaroth. A smirk played evidently on his lips as the garou let him take the orbs from their master.
"I have the feeling that this is going to be a wonderful alliance." Ashtaroth coolly spoke. A terrible feeling sat in Duel's stomach... one he should have listened to. But then again, even Ancient Demons such as Duel can't see into the future, and what a future he was going to be heading into.
Duel soon found himself regretting the alliance. Ashtaroth took the demon's territory over as if he owned it all; And Duel coped with it, because of the stone in Ashtaroth's hand, the stone that Duel had helped him finish. This was how Duel was payed, of orbs and of demons both.
Fin. Or is it?