It is said that if you wish to awaken the gods, you'd best give them a show. It is also said that if one were to challenge a beast, you'd best be prepared to face his fangs. I knew these sayings and their lessons very well, but I heeded them not one whit on this day.

I stood in front of the throne of a mighty king, an unborn god given mortal flesh. He was a powerful, mountain of a man with cloud colored hair and blood red armor, crowned with the horns of a demon upon his head. He rode upon a steel armored stallion, possibly the best threaded and best bread horse of the land. It must have been the strongest, toughest and fastest—while most beautiful and powerful stallion to be found on the continent. In his hand he held the axe, his most powerful weapon. The axe was giant, red and black like his armor, and it was that same axe that destroyed whole lands and armies that opposed him. He was powerful alright, he might as well have been a god.

I stood as a twig challenging a forest. I wore a very dark brown coat over a dark undershirt, both which had their sleeves rolled up to have my hands covered in brown leather and dark red fabric gauntlets. Attatched to my waist were small belts that held a couple pouches where I ould keep a small number of curative medicines and the sheath for my sword. Baggy and yet slim ebony pants covered my legs and agility centric black fine boots were from my shins down to my feet. Wrapped around my neck and my shoulders was a midnight black neck wrap that had enough leftover fabric to hang from my shoulder down to my mid back. Upon my head was a black leather hard headband that was just below the hairline for my crimson fiery colored hair that was combed and worn straight flowing back, yet wild and full. In my hand was a jagged and black longsword that looked like a broken crab's claw in shape. But the blade was sharp and fine, unbroken, and to my knowledge it would never break.

I stood not alone. At my side stood a woman, with long umber hair, peachy skin and a white partially revealing coroset underneath a black hooded coat with ritualistic purple markings all over the coat and golden detail around the buttons of the middle and the sleeve cuffs. On the inside of the coat she wore was a red-violet velvet and below her waist she wore a black and gold short sash over white baggy leggings that gave way to brown and gold boots on her feet. She had moderately sized lips with thin and dark eyebrows, with those ovalular condescending and yet sly eyes of hers the color of darkness itself. She held in her hands a steel sword and a yellow book with one of the symbols for the thunder spells.

Saying no words, she and I both dashed forward to the enemy on his horse ready to rain steel and thunder upon him. But before a bolt or blade could even touch him, he took one hand and swung horizontally the mighty axe of his kingdom. The force was so undeniably strong that it tossed the two of us back through the air, as I watched the distance between us and the enemy lengthen as a blood red fine carpet still led to him and he stood, not moving an inch. Seconds and meters later, we touched down upon the ground, stopping our movement. "You weren't kidding, Ladon." the young woman told me. "He's stronger than most men."

I chuckled and smirked to her comments of what transpired. "So are you." I remarked. "And you're smaller than he is."

She smirked at me in irritation and ridicule. "Oh, hah hah hah. You're hilarious."

Behind us came the sound of a sword cleaving through armor and sinew, as the two of us looked back to see a blue haired strong looking man wearing noble Ylissean armor with a navy blue, silver and white palette, a silver shoulder pad and a white cape that hung from said piece. On his other arm, no armor was found but a dark blue glove upon his hand from fingers to wrist. His bare shoulder revealed something of a birthmark that I knew to be the brand of Ylisse's royal family crest. His sword was a golden-like blade of elegant and yet straight and sturdy craft. It emitted a sacred luminescence, like a holy light that was not yet fueled from its state as embers. He was strong looking, but yet elegant, handsome and friendly to us—as if he was a prince.

Once he finished with his enemy, an anonymous soldier wearing his nation's armor and holding an axe, the prince walked over to us. "Ladon, Susanna. I thought you were running ahead." he told us his assumptions.

I gave him a snide look as gestured to the enemy king. "Why sure, you're highness. Care to take a join us?" I sarcastically asked him.

He offered me a look of disappointment. "Sarcasm is really unbecoming of you." he told me.

"Noted." I snapped.

He smiled in confidence as he looked upon the king. "Victory will be ours, I know it."

I smiled with a renewed confidence. "Alright then." I declared. "Onward, my friends! We will get nowhere by standing around!"

And thus we rushed forward, a prince, a swordsman and a girl of thunder. Susanna cast her hand forth with all of her strength, and thus the golden bolts of lightning converged into a singular white column of static energy. I slashed forward while coming down from a leap into the air, grunting as I swung down. The prince dashed forward with all of his speed and available power, releasing his strength for a puncture stab at this king. And he met us in kind, riding forward on his stallion to strike at us with his axe.

As Susanna's spell, and our blades pierced into the king, we knew our victory was assured, until I saw himmuster up his strength to sunder my body with the aze, splitting my head open without allowing me to shout out in pain. As darkness overtook me, I fell at blinding speeds into a pool of nothingness and shadow. My body felt like I was going to be torn from my own flesh until I found myself on my feet in the middle of a battlefield. The grass was grey and green, and brushing violently in the winds and beeing sprayed heavily by the rains. The clouds were dark and potently blocking out sunlight, glooming out this mountain battlefield. And on this mountain, my charge faced towards an enemy whose back was to the sea beneath him. Holding my blade tightly, I saw with my own eyes what the enemy beheld to me. They were not alive, I knew that much.

They were living shadow. Walking, but veiled under the cloak of death were these things, once soldiers, people, alive. Now they were useless husks, wandering for no good reason but carnage and battle. Their eyes glowed with a lifeless sickly light that showed that they spurred on by nothing more than hatred and hunger. But even these unholy contrivances of existence didn't frighten me as much as he did. He rode once more, upon a great and powerful horse. The horse bucked back on its hind legs, neighing as any horse would. But this stallion was the product of conjuration and unlife now, as it made the demonic sounds of a horse that hell spat out. And that same king rode his steed once more, still holding his mighty axe. "You really thought you could escape me, boy?" he asked me, his voice full of power.

He was no longer divine in strength, but demonic. He had not the beating heart of man, but he still looked as alive as he ever did. But as thunder flashed bright enough, I saw his skeleton and rotting flesh underneath his filthy and mossy armor, his horse now rotted and full of maggots where the ravens have eaten his eyes. I swallowed down a lump in my throat as I sneered at him and took stance with my sword. "You're not looking so sure yourself." I retorted to him.

"Hmph." he grunted as we stood at equal distance from one another. "Come at me and finish the job that you so obviously failed to accomplish when you had the chance."

I grunted in disapproval and anger as I ran at him. At the same time, his horse stormed at my direction as he raised his axe, a great halberd of death. As we clashed, darkness took over everything and all was darkness once more. Only this time something else happened. Wave cuts of light pierced and cleaved into the wayward darkness as well as bursts and bashes and grand strikes of deathly ethereal flames and magic.

And from that darkness came the sight of the ocean on the horizon, the feeling of gravitational suspension and a hand grasping onto my head. My body was battered, broken and bleeding, my head felt like a poorly cracked egg. I sputtered and struggled for air as I hang in suspension from his grasp, my lungs feeling clogged up with blood. "Worthless." the king said as his hand let my body go, and I fell swiftly and limply towards the ocean.

I found no mercy as the wind gave me little cuts as I fell. Or when I splashed and broke a little more of my weak and broken body upon the water's surface. I was drowning in my own blood anyway, and not the salt of the sea was incinerating me through the cuts and nooks on my body. I wanted to scream, but it would only leave bubbles filled with the taste of agony. "Coming." Susanna's voice whispered to me.

My mind wa slwoly beginning to choke out. "Coming." her voice called again as it appeared.

Swinning up from the dark depths of the ocean came a giant reptillian monster with slim and welcomingly deadly jaws lined with many teeth. "Coming to eat you, Ladon!" she screamed at me as the titanic monster opened its jaws, approaching me quickly.

And with the sound of meat and bone tearing, sinew crunching under pure muscle, and a slurp of a monstrous gulp, came the everlasting darkness that none returned from.