Naturally, I do not own RO. Uhh..I'll claim ownership of the characters though.

Chapter One – A Lone Man in the Desert

Not so far west of Morroc lay a paladin. His armor lay around him, torn and shattered to pieces, and signs of struggle were all around him. The cross emblem that should have been a dead giveaway for his profession was missing and a silver claymore lay stabbed in the ground besides his head. Whoever had been struggling with him had been courteous enough to leave him his sword. At five foot eleven, he would have made a rather handsome looking paladin were it not for the fact that he tried to shave with the duller edge of his blade and his brown hair was left long and unkempt.

But besides all of that, he was muscular and at this very moment his muscles felt numb, as though he was still suffering from the effects of an assassin's deadly poison. He shifted slowly against the sand, grimacing as his head bumped against the edge of his blade. Then suddenly he remembered what had happened last night and quickly he rose, grabbing onto the hilt of his blade and looking frantically around him for any sign of "her".

She was not there. Instead, he found a lancing pain that shot through his head and groaned as he fell to his knees against the sand. The mark of a black sun, branded on the back of his neck, had flared up. He knew what would happen when the pain finally subsided and struggled hard to hold tightly onto his memories. But this was no ordinary curse, so his attempts were to no avail. When the pain subsided, he realized that he had no clue where he was at all and what had happened yesterday.

The paladin stood up unsteadily and walked towards a set of ruins in the distance. A hundred and twelve steps later, he found himself facing a tattered sign that read "Welcome to Morocc". There were ruins all around him, but besides the ruins, the paladin felt shadows moving, weaving in and out of the empty streets. Drawing his sword, he cautiously stepped forth, keeping his eyes moving all around.

Except that he could not see behind him, and the shadows took advantage of that. Though he could feel the dirk that sliced across his back, his senses were dulled and it took him a second to whip the sword back. Conveniently it tore off the head of an assassin, whose two compatriots gave him open mouth stares. He raised an eyebrow, expecting one of them to cloak or something, but nothing happened and tension seemed to build as a standoff ensued. Maybe they don't know how to cloak?...

"No way…was that the last bottle of deadly poison Marks had…how the hell did that guy survive…" He heard their low whispers, but that was getting considerably annoying and though the paladin did enjoy waiting, he had a sense that standing out in the middle of an "empty" Morocc street was potentially dangerous. Quickly he stabbed his sword into the ground and gave a light prayer before forming a cross with his fingers. "Gloria Domini."

He had been expecting a massive spiritual cross to fall on the two assassins and probably stun them. Instead, a fork of lightning struck both of the assassins dead and as they fell to the ground, their corpses burnt up into ashes. The paladin quickly turned to face a high priestess garbed in a standard white uniform, who gave him a knowing smile and bowed.

"Good morning, Arca Criar, I see you've gone and made some friends…now deceased. How unfortunate..." By the cheery fashion she said "how unfortunate", Arca deduced that the priestess was definitely the one who thunder bolted both of the assassins dead. She's strong…but…who is she…I can't seem to recognize her at all…somebody that knows me. Arca frowned as he struggled to bring up all of the high priestesses he had known prior, but none of them matched the priestess standing in front of him.

"Hmm...You don't seem to recognize me…I see I wasn't fast enough to catch you before the curse struck today. But that's ok; we'll just play until sunset again and you'll remember me by then. Now that we're done in Morocc, let's head out to…" The priestess paused for a moment, apparently trying to figure out where to go and as Arca waited, he suddenly realized that his shield was missing. Then again, so was his peco steed. Ignoring the woman he quickly left for where he had come from, hopefully his belongings were still close by.

The high priestess followed him out into the desert, without a clue as to what Arca was doing, at least until they came upon the scattered remains of the paladin's full plate. Seeing him pick up the ruined shards, she laid a hand on the paladin's shoulder. "Stop doing redundant things, we'll get to Prontera and they can issue you a new suit there." Arca looked up at her. "Prontera?...Oh, that's right…headquarters is at Prontera…I'm sure the city will have something that will fit me. It's probably time for the summer festival too." The high priestess gave him a controlled smile as he led the way back. He either doesn't remember, or the curse is sapping away at his sense of time…he'll be in for a shock when he sees Prontera…

By noon, the two of them were at the middle of the desert, where gaping holes marked the entrance to the realm of ants. Arca did not realize that he had his sword drawn until the priestess laid her hand on his tensed arm. "Don't stir them…they've already surrounded us. Any flicker of that sword and we'll probably get jumped on." Arca nodded and the two of them slowly made their way through the desert, not without noticing the mounds of sand that seemed to move along with them.

"What are they? I never knew ants could burrow that well." The high priestess gave him a light smack over the head. "They aren't normal ants, you were there when we killed off Maya. Since then the ant colony's run berserk. Trust ants to adapt…now we've got even more specialized ants than before. Nobody's gone down into Anthell for years. Who knows what the hell they've come up with?" He nodded and again his sword arm tensed as he watched the mounds inch closer to the pair.

"They're coming…uhh…Miss priestess. You know, you never gave me a name…" The priestess smiled. It's been four hours….this is the shortest it's taken for him asking me my name now… "It's Hashtis, now don't forget it this time." Arca nodded, rolling the name over in his mind. "Hashtis…sounds sort of like…a demon's name, you know? Not really fitting for a high priestess." She slapped him over the head and purely on reflex he swung his sword arm back at her.

"oh…SHIT."

She had managed to catch the sword between her palms, but that wasn't what worried the two of them. Sailing through the air towards them was a trio of ants. It only took one look to know that these ants were definitely not normal. The normal pieres, andres, and deniros were about the size of a small puppy at best. These creatures were about the same size as a small wagon and their jaws looked like they could snap up a peco in half.

The two of them quickly rolled aside, evading the ants' first attempt at bisecting them. Arca tried to stab at one of them as they landed, but before his sword could find its mark the ants were underneath the sand again. Hashtis' hands crackled with lightning and soon bolts were striking the ground all around them. "Lightning ward, really damn hard to keep it up but it'll stop them from burrowing underneath us. Let's get the hell out of here before the myrmidons decide its time for another pass." Arca nodded and the two of them quickly ran through the desert towards the pass that should have lain in the north.

As they ran, Arca noticed that the mounds stalking them were gone, but his sense of bad luck nagged at him and he shouted at Hashtis as they continued to flee. "Ants…do they still work in packs?" The priestess nodded and fired off another thunder bolt. "We must have encountered a scouting party, last time we ran through here I caught sight of a hunting party chasing down an unfortunate pack of desert wolves." The thought of ants chasing down wolves was enough to give him a chill down his spine. Then he stopped cold anyways, just as the path leading out was in sight.

A colossal monster stood blocking the path; it looked like an ant that had somehow managed to stand upright. Besides the two legs that somehow managed to support its massive bulk, the other four legs were long sharpened blades. And that did not account for its jaws, easily as large as Baphomet's crescent scythe. Arca gulped and slowly walked to the side, hoping the creature had not seen him.

"Intruder detected. Proceeding with elimination." The creature fell flat on its six legs and a massive wave of sand rushed at them. Both Arca and Hashtis dropped to the ground as the wave passed right over them. Now covered in a layer of sand, Arca made to rise, but Hashtis' arm kept him lying down on the ground. The ground seemed to shudder and Arca realized why there was no sense in standing up.

They were directly beneath the creature, which was now stomping in frustration as it tried to root out the tiny critters lying beneath the sand. Sooner or later, the little creatures would have to come up to breathe and it was content to wait until they did…or died.

And it was right. Arca had been finding it harder and harder to breathe, for with every breath more of the sand threatened to rush into his mouth. He took to breathing once every minute, but even then he found it was soon practically impossible to breathe. With his last breath he burst out of the sands and thrust his sword upwards. The sword struck true and an intense vibration rang down his arm, numbing it entirely.

Then it shattered.

Looking incredulously at the hilt he still held, Arca did the only thing he could think of. He leapt on top of the massive ant and hung on as the creature ran rampant through the desert. He noticed that Hashtis had also burst free from the sand and was running towards the exit. Without him.

Arca growled and yanked on the ant's antennae, pulling until the creature would turn to face the exit. It caught sight of Hashtis as well and accelerated, scuttling over the desert sands towards the exit. Arca watched in nervous anticipation as they hurried towards the fleeing priestess. He carefully took hold of other antennae and just as the creature was about to snap its jaws shut he yanked both up into the air.

The creature nearly broke his eardrums with an earsplitting whistling sound as it collapsed to the ground senseless. Arca did not need a second warning as he ran towards the path, where Hashtis was still running. The priestess gave him a grin when he caught up.

"You know, I think you fight better without a sword and shield than when you do fight with a sword and shield, Arca." He gave her a disparaging glance and pushed her through the open field. Until at last, Prontera lay in sight. The ancient capital of Rune Midgard, the primordial bastion of mankind.

Now lay in ruins, with its southern castle wall completely torn down. Arca let out a gasp of shock as he continued to walk towards the city. Suddenly the scenery in front of him changed and he found himself in a different world…

He was still in Prontera, and the city was in all of its glory. A glory overrun by demons as the Demon Fly's legions swarmed through the city, slaughtering indiscriminately. Arca was standing close to the royal palace, though he actually wanted to be in the city itself, fighting the waves of demon that poured on against the human defenders. He watched in agony as the human defenders died like weeds to the demons. Despite all of their tactical planning, despite their resolve, the humans died nevertheless.

But the humans were not the only thing that was stalling the advance of the demons, and Arca watched as other monsters joined the fray. Turtles fighting demons…machines fighting demons…the undead fighting demons…it was this united front that gave them chance they would not have had alone. Out of the corner of his eye, Arca caught a flicker of motion, then a rain of thunder showered over him and his fellow paladins, and all of them fell to the ground…and he fell into darkness.