DISCLAIMER: I don't own the rights to anything in this story, except for my songs, which ARE copyrighted.
Chapter 1: Burden and Betrayal
Day after day, night after night, hundreds of thousands of people ask themselves: "What am I here for? Why am I alive? When will I find my destiny?" Well this is one of those times where someone finds out his true destiny, and it's more than he bargained for.
A small child walks over to his mother and reaches out to her, his father walks over and rubs his head, causing his hair to go every-which-way. But then, the next thing the child knows, he sees his parents bloody corpses and looks down at his purple, blood stained hand.
The man awakens from the same nightmare that has plagued his dreams for the past thirteen years, the memory of the day he was given this curse, the day the Monster-Beast Kazan took control of his left arm. He inspects the mystical chain on his arm to find nothing out of the ordinary, besides more runes.
"Kazan must have tried to break the seal in my sleep. Hmph. Only way to break this is if I do it myself, and that's not very likely."
He moves to his feet just in time to see a goblin strike at the tree he was resting on. He cleaves the goblin in two with his mighty katana, Sky Splitter, a gift from his master. He hears footsteps aproaching, and hides behind a bush just in time to miss being spotted by a horde of goblins. He creeps up on them and begins grabbing them one by one and executing them. He kills a few of them just in time to see where they are headed: the nearby town.
He rushes the goblins and begins hacking and slashing to and fro. He kills dozens of them, but they keep on coming. All of a sudden, he sees a blur of motion and a group of goblins go flying through the air in pieces.
"Need a hand?"
A cute, busty girl with emerald eyes and a pair of bladed tonfas asks him as she suddenly fades into existence before his eyes.
"I don't need any help to kill off a few goblins, besides, won't you break a nail?"
"Yeah, right! The nails are flawless!"
"Hahaha."
"What's so funny?"
"It's nothing." he says, blushing.
The goblins keep on coming and they keep on killing, until there's a loud thud from deep in the forest, then everything is quiet, too quiet.
Then, out of nowhere, a large, muscular man with an even larger cross on his back comes flying out of the woods at break neck speed and crashes into a tree, toppling it with ease.
"Are you alright?" the girl asks as she runs over to the big man.
"I'm fine, but you need to get out of here, something terrible is coming, a Tau Beast."
"What the hell's a Tau Beast?" asks the swordsman.
Suddenly there's a large booming sound coming from deeper in the forest. The ground begins to shake as the sound gets louder and louder, until the sound stops and a pair of large, red eyes appear from inside the woods. The large creature reveals itself: a large minotaur like monster that stands at around ten feet tall, with razor sharp horns that cuts through the trees like a hot knife through butter.
"THAT'S at Tau Beast."
A bullet grazes past the swordsman's cheek as he sees it enter the Beasts leg, causing it to kneel.
"Pretty good shot, if I do say so myself."
"Nah, I've seen better. From me."
A sleek and thin, almost catlike, pair, a man and a woman, appear on the limb above the big man's head. The man has a pair of large pistols in his possession, and the woman has a pair of machine guns in her's. Unexpectedly, the branch snaps, causing them to fall, and the woman lands right on top of the big man, while the man lands just before the branch smacks him in the face.
"My, what large muscles you have." She says as she strokes his chest.
The big man just lays there, beet red.
"A-are you alright Ma'am?" he asks.
The woman giggles before getting off of him.
"I'm fine, thanks for the help, Hun."
She winks at him and draws her guns, ready to face their newest foe once more.
The swordsman rushes the beast, but the monster smacks him aside like he's nothing.
"That'sit! Now I'm pissed!"
He dashes past the monster and swings his sword, cleaving one of the beast's horns from its head. He moves in closer, but the beast stomps its foot, causing the ground under him to tremble, causing him o fall to his knees. He looks up and rolls out of the way just in time to miss being crushed by the beast's massive foot.
"Hey, Gunners, shoot the bastard's legs! Big Guy, smack him in the stomach with that stick of your's! Girly, slash his arms! I'm goin' for the head!"
"Why should we have to listen to you?"
"Just do it! You wana live don't ya?"
"Duh!" the Ranger smarts back.
The swordsman jumps onto the wounded beast's back after the other do their jobs and cleaves the monster's head from it's shoulders.
"That should do it."
He hops off the body before it falls to the ground with a huge thud.
He looks at his sword to see that all he has is the hilt, the blade is solidly fixed into the creature's flesh.
"Well, shit."
With the monster vanquished, the group sets out for the nearby town to rest. They find a small inn, and get their rooms payed for. The party goes to the Drunken Skunk, a pub across from the inn, and buy a few drinks. They decide to introduce themselves, but all of a sudden, a joyful squeel is heard from across the room. A young mage walks over to the group and inspects the swordsman thoroughly.
"You're Seigfried the Slayer! Yes you are! I found the One-Armed Warrior King! YAY!"
The group looks at this wayward swordsman dumstruck. Feeling uncomfortable with their odd looks, he asks the girl: "Do I know you?"
"Nope, but I'm a big fan of your work. See?"
She hands him a poster of him from five years ago when he won the Tournament of Souls in Tarbarken.
"How did you get this?"
"I found it on a wall a little while back, so I took it."
"..."
"Is something wrong?"
"I-it's nothing..."
"Well, I also know of Patrick the Priest of Power, Gale and Glaive the Twin Guns of Gardenia, and Fiona the Ferocious Fighter."
Seigfried's eyes widen as he hears the other's names spoken, names he knows all too well, the names of people he wronged in the past, before Kazan was sealed.
"I'm Meril the 'Mallicious' Mage, though I have no idea what that word means... Oh well! Now that you all know each other, I suppose we can eat, if it's okay for me to join you."
"Sure, it's fine by me." says Gale.
"Yays!"
The mage looks at the Priest's odd expression aimed towards her, and asks him "What's up? Do I have something on my face?"
"You don't happen to know of a place called Medinia, would you?"
"Yeah, I grew up there, why?"
"Because if you're the Meril the Mother of Mages, then you'd have to be at least a hundred years old, yet you look like you just turned thirteen."
"Oh, how sweet of you. but I'm one hundred and fourty-two, to be exact. And still young."
All the other's, besides Seigfried, look at her with wide eyes. Seigfried walks over to the bar and orders the hardest liquor the barman has, then downs it as if it were water, not cringing or even changing his facial expression.
"You can sure hold your own, can't you?" the barman says with a smirk.
"This is nothing, try some of this, I made it myself. I used Marri Berries, Ginger Root, and Jinku Weeds to create this concoction."
The bartender takes a small sip and his eyes water.
"That's some strong shit, but it tastes delicious!"
"Care to make an investment?"
"How much?"
"Four gold."
"Only four? I'd take you for the kind of man to try to swindle me outta my money, not ask for chump change."
"Hm... I think I know just what I can do, I'll trade you for it. I'll buy you a new weapon, seeing as you're unarmed, so to speak, and it'll be delivered to the inn when it comes in. How's that sound?"
"You're not even going to tell me what it is you're planning on buying?"
"It'll be a surprise."
"Then it better be a good one, it isn't easy juicing Jinku Weeds."
The bartender looks at him oddly, thinking the liquor must've gotten to them both, and sends him back to the table with the others.
"What were you two mumbling about?"
"Nothing, don't worry about it. I'm turning in, if anyone needs me, I'll be in my room."
"Alright." the others say in unison.