CHAPTER 3

"Uncle, I'm back!" shouted Kris.

"Krisss, could you come in the kitchen for a moment. I need to talk...oh there you are!" said his uncle as Kris entered the door.

"What's the meaning of this? Why is the tournament announcer here?"

"We jussst need to talk to you, sit down for a while."

And Kris obeyed though a certain look in his eye said that he was unwilling to sit through the whole talk. Kris carefully eyed the announcer. He was a plump human, only as tall as he was. His eyes and his trembling hands say that he's scared. He was as if at the verge of crying but something held him back; a hope perhaps.

"Sir Kris," the announcer finally spoke, "we need y-you to fight in the finals of the tournament. The council thinks that y-you are fit to be the wielder of the final avyuir."

"Sssee Krisss, the council already thinksss you're good enough," his uncle said in a pleased tone, "you ssshould definitely fight in the finalsss!"

"And did he mention that I'm fighting JULIUS—the winner of the 230th avyuir?"

"JULIUSSS? YOU NEVER MENTIONED ANYTHING ABOUT JULIUSSS?" his uncle rises at this statement, motioning as if he was about to clobber the trembling human in front of him.

"But don't worry mister announcer," says Kris and both heads turned to him, "I'm definitely fighting in the finals."

Aghast, both his uncle and the announcer had their eyes widened so much that Kris thought that they would fall out of their sockets. It was funny, he thought, that how this courage came about and where it came from he could not understand. All he knew was that he wanted that final avyuir more than anything.

Kris coolly went up to his room, walking past his frightened uncle and the trembling announcer that looked as if he just saw the fallen king himself. Kris locked his room; he didn't want to be disturbed. He sat in his bed and gazed at the poster of the mighty three. They were his heroes and his inspirations. Once he wins the last avyuir, he thought, he'd join them in combat. With this in mind, Kris closed his eyes and started picturing a glorious battle. Soma, Fenrir and Jasmine (a viera) was surrounded by millions and millions of monsters. They were separated from each other and could not aid one another. Soma was getting the worst of it all; he was surrounded by dragons, lamias and rockbeasts. They surrounded him as he randomly shot spells of firaga, blizzaga and thundaga everywhere. He seemed to be in panic and just when he shot cure to heal himself, a red dragon came blasting fire balls at him. Just when all hope seems lost, Soma covers his eyes and kneels down finally accepting defeat.

"REFLECT!" shouts Kris, aiming his new golden avyuir at the direction of Soma. A magical sphere forms around Soma's body just before the first of the fire balls hit him. The fire balls bounce back and randomly damages a lot of the monsters as they hit the sphere that protects Soma's shaking body.

"You've got to fight Soma, so stand up!" says Kris as he swings his glorious golden avyuir to a blue dragon on the verge of attacking.

"You're right Kris; we've got to make it through this somehow." And Soma stands up, back to back with Kris as they slay the countless monsters coming from all over the place. After a long cut scene in Kris' mind involving countless slashes and moves he'd never seen himself do before, the battle finally finishes as Kris shouts "THUNDAGA," slaying the final remaining monsters.

He opens his eyes finally and walks towards the window. He could not see the arena from here but he could hear it, as if it was calling from beyond time, whispering to him and calling for him to fight. He wanted to do so; his spirits were once more rising to the skies. But there was something else, a different voice that comes from within him. This voice was dark and deep and he realizes that it was his fear beckoning him to simply run away.

"How can I beat someone who can send even the bangaa running for their lives?" he clenches his fist. "I'm just a human after all."

That night, Kris couldn't sleep at all. He hardly knew what was going to happen the next day and he can't stop thinking of a kind of strategy to be Julius. He'd start attacking from the right first, he thought to himself, then from the left. He'd use magic only when it was needed and he'd probably finish Julius with a smack to the back of the head. "This is a good strategy," he kept saying "with Julius' right eye all stitched up, he'd never see me coming from the right." He'd give a small snicker afterwards then suddenly realize that there was a minor flaw in his plan. Kris was like this all night and he couldn't fall asleep because of it. But after a while, he started feeling his eyes getting heavier and sooner than expected, he was asleep.

Shout are coming from everywhere. Where they are coming from he does not know, he thinks to himself. Better yet, from whom are they coming from? Stronger and stronger, these shouts of pain and anguish come and the more he hears them, the more unbearable they become. Then, just when he was in the brink of losing it, a light shines from somewhere and once more he could see the structures that were taller than trees and shone brightly and glittered magnificently in the sun.

He was back in the war but he felt as though it was different somehow. The army of all the races was gone and what was in front of him now was a huge army, one even bigger than the army of all the races, of black armored soldiers. A few distances from where he was standing, he could see machines of enormous size. They were moving and from what he could make out, there were large guns mounted on top of it. One of the machines fired and he soon realized that the large bullet from the last dream came from this machine. The army of black soldiers were shooting bullets and running towards something that he couldn't see. From where he was, he could see bullets and bombs flying over to one direction then arrows and magic coming from the other. The army of all races must be on the other side, he thought to himself.

Then from out of no where, he hears a large earsplitting scream. He looks around but all he could see now were dead bodies, bullets and many things flying about. It was when he heard the same sound again that he looked up and saw the same huge flying monster from before. Once more it opened its mouth and out from it, came a huge beam of blue shining light that exploded when it impacted to the ground. The ground was again blazed in blue flames and countless screams once more transpired. Kris felt himself fall kneeling to the ground. He clutched his face in his hands and panic engulfed his body. He didn't know what to do and he didn't know why he feels guilty for all of this. Once more, the beast screams its earsplitting cry then Kris hears the unsheathing of swords. Before he lost his consciousness from this dream, a word faintly flew to his ear—"activate."