Firelight from the forge flickered and leaped crackling along the walls, it's unreliable raging glow illuminating a variety of feudal era style weaponry and armor, and then dancing away, leaving them shadowed. There was little else to the room besides the armor stands, weapon racks, and the many stations and tools of a smith.
A man stood before the raging fire, painstakingly placing each reforming blow of the hammer upon the blue breast plate beneath it. His long brown hair was plastered to his back by the sweat cascading from him and on his brow was a frown of concentration as he followed seams no one else could see. The process was much more than simple forging.
With a prayer and a final ring of the hammer, he set the breastplate to cool. Anubis sighed as he stepped away from the fires in relief. That was the final piece. He had done it in time. He glanced up as if trying to see past the stone of this mountain. Though he could not see the constellations, he could yet feel the alignment taking place. Two worlds, two sets of stars. When they overlapped, a portal could be opened between them. It had happened much sooner than usual. Anubis was sure less than a hundred years had passed since he had last faced the reality of this event. Then, he had been on the other side.
He wiped the sweat from his face and set to cleaning and polishing the sets he had completed as he waited for the final piece to cool. As he worked, thoughts flowed through his mind. He had learned a great deal in the intervening years from the last encounter with the evil coming. Knowledge and memories had become accessible to him from long years of searching and meditation. Both enlightening him, and imparting a sense of misgiving as he looked critically at what he had done. Could something made of evil truly be controlled by a virtue? Anubis thought about the men he had known who had worn these suits of armor, both valiant, and malicious. All had been on the brink of destruction. Now, his unskilled workmanship was the only thing standing between that disaster and hope.
Gently, he retrieved the finished piece, and made it shine as new. He carefully assembled it, aligning it next to its companions. Putting his robes and hat on, he picked up the staff that had become familiar to him, though it was far older than he. Standing before them, he chanted and gathered his focus. Walking to each, he touched it with the staff in blessing. Turning away from them, he brought the staff to the floor in a solid thump, and they disappeared into nine white boxes. Anubis wondered who would be selected to bear their burden in this generation. Would they be like the young men he had worked with last time? At least, with his new knowledge, he should be able to help them avoid or lessen the severity of some of the challenges they might face. Even though the truth meant he did not know how to defeat Talpa of the Dynasty. It would not be as simple a thing as killing what was left of him.
With a twinge of sadness, he realized everyone he knew was likely deceased, with the exception of that ambitious evil being from another world. The courageous boys who had had such an impact on his life and striven so hard to protect their world were probably now resting in permanent sleep. The evil men he had once worked with had been slain, and the passing centuries of his life meant all he had known before he lost his way had long since turned to dust.
His thoughts were interrupted as he sensed it happen. The portal opened, linking the two worlds he knew in a contest of battle was about to begin. Perhaps the final one in this long war. Thunder pealed about the lonely mountain and crashed through the vented chamber Anubis stood in. The deafening noise was followed by shouts as Dynasty soldiers and several armored men stormed into the cavern.
Anubis' surprise was great. How had they found him? More immediately troubling, he didn't know if he could fight them off. His power was strong, but he had exhausted himself in his attempts to renew the armors of the Ronin Warriors. The group split, some continuing for him, and the rest greedily gaining on the white boxes with their precious cargo. Whatever else happened, the Dynasty could not be allowed to reclaim them. Talpa could not be allowed to regain what he had lost!
Anubis swept the Staff of the Ancients in a circle, knocking back the enemy, and sending the boxes out of their reach. He set the staff against the ground, muttered a quick chant, and hit the ground again, making those innocuous containers disappear.
Another crack split the air, but this one caused Anubis to cry out in pain. The whip lashed out at him again, cutting him badly, sending electricity crackling unexpectedly throughout his body. He staggered back against the wall. Gritting his teeth, he swept the staff through the air to create a barrier. A javelin broke against the shield, followed by another. A large figure blocked the natural light as he loomed over Anubis' weak defense, and brought down a giant battleaxe, both monster and man gleaming with flickering firelight from the forge. The hurt man groaned as he withstood the hit. He didn't have the strength to stop them, and his shield would not hold. The little reserves he had seemed to be siphoned away as he stood, weakening him further.
As the giant swung again, Anubis dropped the shield and moved to the side, then raised the staff to teleport himself away. A barbed javelin whistled through the air and lodged in his shoulder, causing him to drop the sacred implement. The whip coiled around his other arm. Desperately, he grabbed it with his hand, gritting his teeth against the voltage, and jerked the enemy towards him, kicking him when he was spun close. The short man in sleek armor reeled backwards. Stepping into his place, the tall man with the javelins slammed his shield upside Anubis' head.
Dazed, Anubis slumped, defeated. He tried feebly to struggle when the giant picked him up roughly, but he had nothing left to fight with. The man with the whip bound him securely. His face was one smooth surface, except for his mouth, and short tentacles waived around its unhelmeted lines.
"That wasn't so hard," he said, a slight hissing edging his words.
"Master Talpa will not be pleased to learn we lost the armors," The tall man spoke in a deep voice as he picked up Anubis' staff. His armor looked like thick, dried mud, with feather like plumage settled decoratively on his shoulders, and his feet were split into two toes.
The giant said nothing.
"We got enough," the small man snarled. The giant ignored them both and left the mountain. Without further argument, they followed.
They entered the room that seemed to stretch forever in its misted gloom. Blue fire lined the walls and chased the shadows from the grotesque head that was all that was left of their evil master.
Gris the giant dropped Anubis in front of the open eyes, and bowed. Horil coiled his whip and adopted the same pose. Djunn laid the staff down reverently and dropped to his knee.
"Master," he said, his deep voice resonant. "We bring you the Ancient One and his tool. He sent the armors away before we could retrieve them, as well."
"But it's not a total loss," Horil hissed, sending a dark look at the other, the short tentacles waving agitatedly about his face. "Without him, Master, they will be lost."
"I know that better than you, fool!" Talpa said in irritation. "Take Gris and Torig, and establish me in the place they call America. Djunn, remain here."
"Yes, Master," Horil bowed his writhing head. He and and the giant left the room.
"Anubis," Talpa gave his mind to other matters, staring amusedly at the helpless man below him. "It's been a long time, my old servant."
"Too short a time," Anubis said weakly.
"What should I do with you?" The ugly head mulled over his possibilities. The eyes were red lights in ghostly dark hollows, the rest a metal mask that looked intangible. "What punishment would be fitting for you? I once trusted you over all others, as you had left your friends and life behind to join me in conquest. But you then betrayed me as well, and helped to chase me from this world once again. I have wanted you in my power for a long time, Anubis."
"It doesn't matter what you do to me, Talpa." Anubis said resolutely, his bonds cruelly tight and his head still bleeding. "I will never aid you again. I will not be broken by any means of yours, and if you kill me, then I die with only one regret."
"And what would that be?" Talpa asked contemptuously, growing angry at this speech.
"That I did not see you destroyed first, with my own eyes. And you will be destroyed, with or without my help," The Ancient One said distinctly.
"Then your eyes are where we will start!" Talpa shouted, enraged at the lack of fear and full defiance left in the human man. "Djunn, take him to the dungeons! You know what I want done."
"I will carry out your will," the tall man answered. He rose, grabbed the grimly silent Anubis, and left the room.
Talpa was left to stare at the staff that had thwarted him throughout long millenia, the staff that had been wielded by more than one man, and held many secrets he had never had access to.
"Badamon!" He summoned the lord of the Nether spirits.
The priest appeared, materializing out of the air. His face was neutral, though he was perturbed to have his research disturbed by the tyrant's summons. Sometimes, he thought, Talpa forgot who had given power to whom. "Yes?"
"Take the staff," Talpa commanded. "Learn it's magic so that we can become more powerful, and nullify the only enemy that has stood in our way."
The Staff of the Ancients? Badamon was indeed intrigued. This was the tool that had been used by the Monk to defeat Talpa and break his remnants into nine pieces. Ten, if one included the head that had escaped. The only magic that had been strong enough to undo his own. He gathered the inert object and disappeared.
Talpa looked out over this world that had so far rebuked him. His gaze found the three teams of captains he had sent out to claim two other parts of the world for him, in addition to the rebellious country he now hovered over. The move weakened what power he could exert here, where the bridge between the two planes was strongest, but it should also keep the new Ronin Warriors from teaming together to stand united in their defiance. These captains did not have have the power of the mighty generals who had been slain in their previous assault, but they yet had their strength. This time, he would not be denied.
From the large grate he rested over wafted laments and screams of suffering, a bloom of tortured and twisted energy feeding into him, bolstering his power. He imagined that he could hear Anubis' cries of pain in that cacophony of helplessness, and he laughed. The sound boomed across the darkening skies, roiling along the edges of the thunderous clouds that heralded his arrival.
AN: Welcome to my biggest project ever! The story is finished, and I will be putting chapters up on a daily basis for your viewing pleasure. Now, my grammar isn't perfect, and I apologize, but I have cleaned this up as best as I could see to do it. So now that we've got that out of the way, allow me to invite you on a ride that I think you will like. Would you like to meet the new cast? The first Ronin members will see you tomorrow!