A/N

Wow, this has gotten more recognition than I thought XD! Well, since you people seem to like it, Red Star Rising shall be continued! My sincere apologies for slow updating by the way, I'm trying to fit in a chapter along with finishing all my school work in a timely manner.


A few days had passed since the incident at the market. Chung still dreamt about the girl, and each time he woke up even more anxious than before. The haunting image of a beautiful girl dressed in black with ebony hair and orange eyes remained drilled into his mind. Laying down on the couch, the Deadly Chaser sighed and closed his eyes for a minute. It made him feel more relaxed and not as if the world they were living in kind of sucked. Then a boisterous voice filled his eardrums all of a sudden, and he was sent jolting upright on the couch in surprising celerity. It was his purple-haired friend, Aisha. She held a grayscale magazine in her hand and shoved it in his line of vision.

"Chung! A copy of the Ancient Book of Elements has been made! It's only 80,000 ED!" She squealed girlishly, like how a teenage girl would freak over a concert to their favorite pop singer. Chung frowned, not liking the price of the publication and how careless Aisha was being over her money. She was an Elemental Master, given to the highest level of magicians for El's sake and supposed to be the more logical one!

"No way are we buying it for you, Aisha." The Elemental Master just rolled her eyes at him.

"I wouldn't even be showing this if I had no plan." Her annoyed expression became a cheerful and excited one once again as she told him the details of her plan.

"There's going to be a fight tournament in two days. The prize is 100,000 ED for winning. For a genius magician like me, measly fighters like them would stand no chance! It's like a free 100,000! I can buy my book, and the money we currently have won't be wasted plus we get an extra 20,000. Win-win situation, right?" Aisha closed one eye in a winking gesture, a proud smile on her face. If anything, Chung's frown grew even deeper.

"You know, some people really need that money to live. Plus, we could be spending that 100,000 ED on things much better than a book to take up four-fifths of the victory cash." He deadpanned. Aisha's lips curled into a pout as she looked at him with mock sympathy.

"Aw, but I already signed up. Poor you."

Twitch, twitch.

Chung's eye twitched in annoyance at the mage. Right now this was really unlike Aisha. The things this woman does for her own knowledge and good. Aisha smiled in victory.

"But look on the bright side. Maybe I can invent something awesome with this book!"

The male's eye twitched some more. Aisha just ignored this and skipped away, a beatific smile on her face.


A man with a Nasod arm smirked, his eyes showing that he was plotting something. Several monitors connected to one internet provider flickered with a bluish light, wires hanging around the entire room. His fingers rapped against the old wooden table, and turned when he heard a door creak. A woman with long tresses and red eyes blinked curiously at him.

"What are you doing?" Her silhouette cocked her hip, placing one hand on said body part. The smirk remained on his face.

"Observing… our newest players." He leaned back on the torn leather recliner, putting one leg over the other. She strut over to him, putting one foot in front of the other seductively before leaning on the desk, watching the screens with interest.

"Hmm… intriguing." She put her hands on her cheeks with a glint in her eye.

"Let us see how the people of Underground Altera handle reality's true form, hmm?" The man with the Nasod arm just smiled deviously, brushing a strand of her silky hair behind her strange ear. The woman looked at him, tilting her head cutely. They stared at each other for a while.

"Don't do that, my dear. You'll only make the temptation irresistible." He scanned figure from head to toe. She just smirked lightly.

"It is only your fault for thinking those thoughts." She ruffled his hair, before standing up and stretching a bit. Her fair skin reflected in the monitor screens, revealing thigh-high boots with the man staring at her.

"Anyways, it is time for me to go. I'll see you later." Giving a small wave, the beautiful woman turned and left the man to his business alone. A chuckle emitted from his mouth, murmuring a name with fondness before turning back and observing the monitors which showed several perspectives of a stage with elastic material surrounding it in a box-like shape.


Aisha skipped around the underground town of Altera, humming a melody to herself with a content smile. Being able to rub that in Chung's face, oh it was pure gold! Not as awesome as it would have been with Elsword, but still hilarious. She decided to check out her competitors, even though she knew victory was assured to her. Heading towards the infamous Arena, Aisha snuck into the practice rooms and watched her competitors with an acute eye.

There was an elf with dark skin and light pink hair, throwing knives at a handsome knight with ebony hair and matching serious eyes. Aisha blushed with a dreamy smile at his looks, her mind envisioning the man with sparkles and bubbles surrounding his figure. He deflected them easily as he rushed up towards her, only to get kicked in the face and kneed in the stomach. Aisha rolled her eyes.

"Nothing special." She told herself. Getting up, the Elemental Master bumped into an ebonette on accident, and she peered at her. She was an inch or two taller than her. Aisha felt intimidated by her stare.

"U-Uh, sorry." Aisha hastily apologized, clasping her hands together and bowing down slightly. The ebonette blinked curiously, before laughing.

"Ah, it's okay! But I'm curious, why are you here? This is a training ground for the next fight tournament." She informed politely with a smile. The purple-haired magician just arrogantly laughed.

"Hehe! I know that already, I was just watching these people!" She answered confidently. The other female peered at her with suspicion.

"Are you perhaps… participating in the preliminary tournament?" Aisha froze. Already caught, and she was going to use the element of surprise for her first match.

Guess there's some smart people entering, huh… I might have to take my skills up a tiny bit.

"Preliminary?" She questioned. The woman crossed her arms with a visibly concerned look.

"You don't know? Those who make it through have access to the Semi-Finals, then… the Arena. It's a series of fight tournaments."

Wow these guys must be desperate, Aisha thought with disapproval.

"So are you entering?" She asked again. The magician paused for a minute, contemplating her answer.

"Maybe, and maybe not." Aisha smugly replied, a small smirk crawling up her features. Her other peer didn't react to it, only tilting her head. The Elemental Master silently applauded herself for fooling the person. The ebonette just pat her on the shoulder, entering the practice area.

"Don't ever enter these fight tournaments. The Arena is hazardous in the end. It can change you… in more ways than one." She warned without sparing a glance. Then she turned, her ebony hair flowing like waves of silk before she stared at Aisha head on in the eyes with an ominous look that felt as if she were staring into her soul.

"And drop out while you still can." Then she turned back around and left, leaving the magician to contemplate her words with confusion. From the grim tone in her voice, Aisha heard small whispers in her mind agreeing with her.

Yes… I should drop out.

The Arena is dangerous.

I can find another way to make a lot of money in a short amount of time.

Let's not do this again.

NO!

I have to!

Aisha glared at the woman's retreating back. She would not back down from the Arena, not when she has already signed up. No… this was for herself. To get the golden apple waiting at the end, her friends' happiness and that ancient book…

I will win the tournament.

She told herself, before haughtily turning around as she threw her arm back in synchronicity to her body movement as she left the sparring grounds.


Have you ever thought of making an alias for yourself in the fight tournaments? I'm surprised you're going this far, though. To enter the preliminaries to the Arena.

Eun suggested the idea while Ara was training on some spirit dummies in an empty room reserved for herself at the Sparring Room. The Yama Raja slammed the blunt end of her spear into one dummy, sending it crashing to the ground as it dissipated into sparkles of energy. The remains flowed back into her body, giving her more energy to summon another puppet to practice her skills on. A healthy sheen of sweat trickled down her forehead and the bangs of her ebony hair stuck to her face, obviously implying that she had been training for quite a while now.

"No. It sounds interesting though. Tell me what you're thinking." Ara answered out loud, continuing to summon more and more training dummies to hit and slicing through just as many in mere seconds. She ignored the fox spirit's side comment, and the fox did not put more attention on that matter so she continued on the current topic.

Perhaps you can gain yourself a reputation. Make an alias and consistently use it in fight tournaments. Surely you will be successful with my power. Keep working at it, and soon enough you'll be the one invited to fight tournaments, and those housemates of yours won't even be necessary anymore.

Slash. Three more dummies were shattered into spirit energy. A grim, regretful smile graced Ara's face.

"I've already won a couple of them. My name is probably already out there for a few people. I don't like being reliant on fight tournaments, I usually try to prevent myself from participating. But recently… I've been feeling an urge to enter more and more tournaments. If we're going to go through with this, what shall our alias be, Eun?"

Heh, now you're thinking straight. That's the Ara I like. What about… The Foxy Girl?

Ara scowled immediately at the name.

"No. Lime or Amelia might like it, but no way in El am I going to use that." She muttered venomously. A soft chuckle was Eun's reply.

Alright, alright. That was just a joke, anyway. Hmm… Gumiho?

FWISH. Another group down, and another group summoned. Ara dashed forward and stabbed one, then fired materialized energy orbs towards the others. Deciding it was enough for the day, Ara made her spear vanish in a flurry of blood red petals. She smirked.

"You make jokes? That's a first. Plus, Gumiho probably represents you more than me."

Alright, then I think I have just the name. Why don't we call you Yama Raja, the Judge of the Dead?

Ara smiled genuinely.

"Yama Raja, huh? I like this one a lot more."

That was when they heard footsteps approaching, and Ara innocently turned around to be met with three huge, bulky men a full head taller than her. They smirked as one of them licked his lips hungrily.

"Looks like we got a doll here, eh?" The tallest one cooed as the other two lackeys cackled with him.

"You got a nice taste, boss!" The one on the left piped up, obviously in an attempt to gain some points with his leader. The one on the right furiously nodded in agreement. His smirk widening, the leader grabbed Ara by her arm roughly, pulling her close.

"We gonna have some fun, okay girlie~?" He whispered, reaching for her chest. Ara remained silent, fully aware this would happen one day.

Eun? Are you up for a little warm up?

Most definitely. Shall we?

We shall.

Swiftly jumping with a backflip away from the man's grasp, Ara slammed the palm of her hand onto the dirt mound floor, her hair once more turning white and her eyes becoming blood red as nine tails emerged from her back. She returned a devious smirk towards the now-shocked men, who were turning as pale as her bed sheets.

"Goodbye." She whispered back demonically. These perverts would not live another day on her watch. The thugs began to sweat bullets, slowly backing away until Ara rushed up towards them.

"Energy Void!"


"YOU AGREED TO AISHA ENTERING THE FIGHT TOURNAMENT RENA?!" Chung screamed in utter disbelief as the Grand Archer laughed nervously, a hand on her cheek.

"Y-Yeah. I can explain, Chung." She started. Flinging his hands up in agitation, he took a seat at the table and rested his cheek on his hand.

"Please do, Rena. I wonder why you agreed to this." Rena sat across from him, folding her hands in her lap.

"My senses are tingling, in a good or bad way I'm not sure. But I think that we should take our chances. Surely there's nothing wrong with one fight tournament. Aisha should do fine, I'm expecting her to win. I feel that if we go, an important event will happen," She began. Chung didn't look on board with the situation so far.

"And we kind of need the 100,000 ED, too…"

Say what.

The male was now confused.

"We… need it? I thought Aisha just wanted it to buy this really pricey book." Rena sighed in sorrow.

"No, Chung. We're really running out of money at this point. Raven recently had to pay the housing bill, which cut off quite the chunk of our money. Even the sun has to set in paradise."

"See, this is why I said we should live in a remote home."

"But then we wouldn't have the electricity to power the solar panels. Not to mention, it is an elven hunch that something important will happen at the arena."

Chung frowned. Rena was usually never incorrect when it came to her elven hunches. Deciding it was reason enough if Rena's sense were ringing and they were really going to run out of money (and Aisha was actually not going to get her book), Chung merely nodded in approval and stood up, exiting towards the garden. Despite the dirty atmosphere of the underground, he found being in the garden to be quite comforting. Looking over the crops they were raising, Chung sat down with his back to the door. He stared up at the ceiling of the underground, which is really supposed to be the surface of the real world. However, the Guardians said that everything above the ceiling is… nonexistent aside from the all-burning Sun. While staring, he suddenly blinked a couple of times. There was a plume of smoke emerging from his right. Well, the Deadly Chaser didn't have anything to do for once, so he got up and raced towards the origins of the smoke. He dashed past prostitutes who eyed him with interest, whispering secrets to people of their level which centered on what they thought of the young teen.

"Ooh, pretty boy."

"I know, hehehe~"

"I'd give myself to him any day."

Sneakers pounded into the dirt mound as the male raced across the town in an attempt to get close to the situation. He was starting to hear some noise coming from the smoke.

"WOLF SPEAR!"

"GUAHHHHHH!"

That sounded bad.

Summoning his Silver Shooters, Chung sped up towards the sound and shoved through people as he darted down a dirt staircase then through a door. Soon he found himself at the heart of the action. A woman with ebony hair that reached her feet was standing there, her clothes splattered with crimson liquid, before three men who were mutilated terribly. There were multiple slashes across their faces, fresh blood leaking out. The woman's face held a small smirk, before her amber eyes snapped towards Chung in alarm. Chung gaped at the situation, his cerulean eyes shocked at how badly the victims were taken apart. Their eyes met, and she slowly began to walk towards him, only to…

Trip over and fall flat on her face. Just like the time in the market.

"Kyah!"

She cried out as her face hit the earth, her spear falling out of her hand. The Deadly Chaser then realized that she was the girl that he met at the market earlier, and so nonetheless the girl in her dreams. He found himself stretching a hand out to help her, and she found herself gladly accepting it as she hauled herself up.

"You're the girl at the market, right?" The words tumbled out of his mouth before he could think again. The ebonette just titled her head, then gave him a smile that would have looked utterly cute if not for the blood splattered on her cheek.

"Yeah. We bumped into each other days ago, if I can remember properly." They both conveniently laughed at the same time, seeming to brighten up the area around them despite the corpses surrounding them. The sound filled the air for some time, before a gun was instantly pointed at Ara's head. Her mouth parted slightly in surprise.

"Now, care to explain why there are three bodies bleeding to death on the ground and why you're covered in that very liquid?" His presumably cheerful persona swiftly switched to a deadly interrogative one in mere seconds. His hand kept still, and her head remained in place. Eventually, a sly smile found its way across the spear-woman's features. One that didn't seem to belong to her, but a different person altogether. Amber eyes flickered red for a brief moment before turning back into its natural shade.

"Say… have you ever heard of the legend of the Gumiho?"


Blazing lights vibrantly shone in the arena as they filled up the damp room, electrical sockets connected to boxes of metal in the corners of the room. In the center was a solid beige square that stood a couple of inches taller than the ground, it seemed to be the area where the people fought. Two corners were carefully avoided from the spotlights, leaving them completely dark while the other two still gleamed in the vivid lights.

"WELCOME TO THE 10TH FIGHT TOURNAMENT OF UNDERGROUND ALTERA!" An announcer whooped and cheered, making gestures with his hands to get the audience to cheer with him too. Elsword, Rena, Raven, Eve, Chung, Elesis, and Add all watched the arena on the sidelines, with the spectators around it in a large circle as the announcer continued. Chung pushed through the crowd, a concerned look on his face as he shoved until he was up at the front. This was not something to be taken lightly. After what Ara had told him… he wasn't too sure about what to make of the girl.

"So you probably heard about that recent incident with the murdered people, right?" Murmurs of agreement, and the announcer chuckled.

"Well, they're true. It just shows how ferocious this year's preliminary competitors are, AM I RIGHT?!" He roared, and everyone shrieked with agreement but Chung and his friends.

"Let's get straight to the point! For our first match! The famous bandit, BANTHUS!"

One light flicked on, showcasing a corner which was darkened and brought to light the competitor. A bulky man with a scar over his eye was flexing with an obvious show of being intrepid, smirking and laughing as he showed off on the main attraction that several eyes were cast upon.

"Versus!"

The light on the other corner of the arena flicked on, and revealed a woman. She had long, silky black hair that split into two, with a thigh-high onyx boot and a low slip-on silver dress shoe. She wore a brunet fur collar around her, one arm having a glove the color of the darkest nights that reached from her fingers to the fur collar and another that was more like a long traditional black shrine sleeve, underneath a matching black glove as well. She wore a provocative one-piece that was too short to be called a dress, but too long for a shirt. There was a large white stripe that went through the middle on the one-piece, but it was outlined in a dark, crimson red as the sides and back were a stygian black. In her hand was a deadly sharp obsidian ornamental spear, and her face was concealed by a fox mask.

Chung eyed the woman warily. He knew who it was.

"A new competitor, one who's identity is hidden behind the mask! YAMA RAJA!"

More cheers. The announcer grinned and raised his hand.

"The rules are simple! The first to be knocked out for more than 10 seconds is the winner! ARE. YOU. READY?!"

Screams of people saying yes were the reply. The announcer clearly expected this response, as he raised his voice again.

"ALRIGHT! BATTLE BEGINS IN THREE!"

Banthus prepared his sword.

"TWO!"

Yama Raja created a strange orb.

"ONE!"

Both got into a fighting stance.

"BEGIN!"


A/N

This isn't the most satisfactory chapter I've ever written. I wanted to end the chapter here, but it left me with the problem of a lack of words. So I feel as if this was more of a filler chapter instead of a real one. Sorry.