Chapter 3
Perfect Resonance! Something Worse Than Kishins?
Kid leads us back into the building, completely silent. My head is spinning with thoughts right now. What is this Lord Death like? Kid said that it was his father, so how bad can he be. I hope that he's not as obsessed with symmetry as kid is.
We came to a large, blood red door. The door could only be described as being one that you would find in the manor of a wealthy noble. All along the door, large gold bolts decorated the door in a rather simple manner, going along the outer edge of the door.
"We're here." Says Kid. He walks up to the door and knocks on it to the rhythm of a funeral march. The door shudders and creeks as it slowly open.
The corridor before us is a long path with large red arches designed to look like guillotines. The areas around the path looked like a vast landscape. Flat and featureless, it drew more attention to the clouds painted on the wall. At least I think they were. The seemed to be crawling across the painted sky.
We followed the path for about 2 minutes until the guillotines ended at a large, circular stage. At the end of the stage was a shockingly large and ornately decorated mirror.
Upon the platform stood the girl that showed us around today, Maka and her partner, Soul. They were talking to a strange hooded figure in the mirror.
He was, ... difficult to describe. His body seemed to be twisted and random, with sharp, harsh angles. His odd appearance erased any suspicions about him being as paranoid about symmetry as his son was. The only symmetrical feature was his large white mask, which contrasted to greatly with his twisted black cloak. The mask was rather familiar, mostly because it was displayed on seemingly every square inch of this town. It was a simple, circular upper portion, with three spikes sticking out of the bottom, the middle one being longer than the others.
As we approached, the man lifted an enormous, white, foam-like hand and waved. "Well hello Kiddo, who are your friends?" The man said with a voice that was rather like that of a cartoon character.
Kid smiles and turns to us. "Darin, Kythe, I would like to introduce you to my father, Lord Death." He said with a bow.
"This is the lord of death, eh?" said Kythe. "He's a lot more different than I expected, but nonetheless, it is still an honor to meet you sir." He said with a bow.
"It is an honor for me as well, sir." I say. "If you don't mind me asking, why have you called us here?"
"Ah, I see. You must be Darin and Kythe. I must admit, defeating Blackstar is no easy feat. As to why you're here, it is to replace Blackstar for a mission that he would have gone on with Maka and Kiddo here. Because you were able to defeat him, you should make a suitable replacement."
"If you don't mind my asking sir, what is the mission exactly?" Asked Maka.
"I'm glad you asked Maka. I assume that you are aware that your father and Professor Stein are away on a mission." A small screen pops up in the mirror. It shows a man wearing a lab coat and wielding a large scythe, fighting and enormous beast. Every time he slashed at it though, the blade passed through it, as if it was water.
I looked at Kythe, and he looked at me, and we both knew that that was no ordinary foe. Lord Death continued.
"The scene you see here is from 2 days ago. Since then, we have have lost contact from them. So we decided to send a team out to investigate." His face took on a very serious tone. "You will leave immediately. Go through here." A portal opens up in the mirror. "Good luck." He said, and then disappeared.
After exiting the portal, I took in our surroundings. We were in a dense forest, with trees so massive that their tops disappeared into the clouds. The ground had a thin layer of mist crawling along it, masking our feet.
In the distance, the sounds of battle raged on. "Alright," said Kid. "Let's go." All of the weapons in the group transform, and we take off running.
As we run, Maka looks over and says, "Darin, I didn't know that you were a scythe meister."
"Ya, and as you can see, Kythe is rather unique as far as weapons go." I said, referring to Kythe's unique weapon shape as a double-bladed scythe.
As we talked, we came to a clearing. The fog had embraced the break in trees to the point where determining where the now much clearer sounds of battle echoed from became an almost impossible task.
A dark shadow materialized in the fog, and we all took up a fighting stance. As the figure neared, the mist cleared up enough to get a better look at the figure.
It appeared to be a middle-aged man with gray hair and wearing a tattered and bloodied lab coat. A cigarette protruded for the side of his mouth, but it appeared as if it had been out for some time. He held a large silver scythe out to his side. But the one feature that stuck out the most to me was a large, black screw protruding from the side of his head.
"So, Lord Death decided to send reinforcements." He looked us over. "Maka. Kid." He said nodding to each one as he spoke their name. He looked at me. "And who might you be?" He said as he twisted the screw in his head.
"I'm Darin Sorenson, and this is my partner, Kythe Harvester." I said holding up Kythe. The screw in his head clicked, and he stopped turning.
Well, well, it appears as if you two have quite the soul wavelengths. I dare say that they are a perfect match." He stood up. "But we'll talk about that later. Right now we have bigger problems." He turned around.
The mist suddenly shot away as a monstrous roar echoed across the clearing. An enormous black beast stood before us on two legs. The horns protruding from its body were spouting flames. Its mouth was filled with enormous razor-sharp teeth. Basically, it was your typical big scary monster.
"Every time I attacked it, my blade just passed right through it. It appears to be made up of 3 different Kishins. I've never seen anything like it before. It's a shame that it keeps finding me. I'm tired of running." Says the man I assumed was Stein. He pulls out a lighter and lights up another cigarette.
"Sir, I believe that I know what that is." I say. "That's not a Kishen exactly, but something called a Phantom."
