CHAPTER 8

A NEW MENACE, NEW ALLIES

(Schyth's eyes)

After grabbing my Casters and Ilbis from Rica's grave, I quickly pulled on the Casters and stuck the pack of Ilbis on my leg where I can easily reach it in times of danger.

"Isn't that in bad taste? This is a dead person's grave." Frey asked me with slight hints of disgust in her voice.

"This was my fiancée, Hinyth's men killed her and I left this claw, and this," I stuck my hand into the grave again and pulled out a handsome green box. "They're the legendary stars of Ilbis. The stars of sheer unmatched power." They will help me, kill Hinyth, and stop whatever is threatening the Maple World as of this moment." I replied. I remembered a few good times I had with Rica and a tear fell from my eyes. Frey must have seen it for she stopped asking questions and fell silent.

I walked silently and swiftly. I cast haste and my speed increased. I jumped up the Orbis tower with accustomed speed. Frey behind me was quickly tiring from the endless jumping and running. Her breaths were coming in short pants and her teleportation skill was becoming less and less frequent.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Oh nothing, just you jumping around like a maniac and not caring about me." She said. She was obviously frustrated.

I grinned as she fumed and continued on how much of a heartless person I am. Intricate details on how I could be a better person and on how I should wait for girls.

"…Especially a girl that likes you!" She quickly covered her mouth after saying this.

"What?" I asked her. I was curious.

"Errrrrr… nothing, really." She turned away trying to hide her face from me. After a while she turned back and started walking ahead of me.

We walked on in silence again for a while, until I noticed something weird.

"Nothing around here…" I said, mostly to myself.

"That's good, no pests to bother us." Frey replied obviously blind to the menace.

"No… that's not good. First of all, my brother tells me of a new threat. Then the zombies come and launches an attack all the fourth job instructors. And then third, all the monsters are gone from the Orbis tower. Something weird is going on here, and it's not good." I replied back to the now horror stricken Frey. Her face showed trepidation as she figures out what I was saying.

"We should go… we must arrive in Victoria as soon as possible. I sense a new evil in the air, an evil not seen since past centuries…" I said fearing the new evil I sensed in the air.

The evil could not have been missed. The air stenches and reeked of it. The evil that was not seen for centuries, far past, to the betrayal of the dark magician, Miriam.

"Have you heard?" I asked Frey.

"Heard of what?" she replied.

The legend… of Miriam, the mage corrupted by power and took over Victoria, and ruled over the 50 years of darkness." I explained to her,

"No, not yet… tell me?" she asked. Curiosity seemed to be very common in this girl. Curiosity kills the cat, but… whatever.

"I shall tell you now, listen carefully, for it might be what we are up against." I continued on.

"Here goes", I said, "Miriam was corrupted by dark magic and soon gained unimaginable power, but it was traded for, with all of her human looks and senses. Near the end, Miriam's power grew to such an extent that she eventually had enough power to overpower the Four Wise Men of Victoria… well that is 3 Wise Men and 1 Wise Woman.

As her power grew, so did her confidence. Even after being banished, she still had the courage to gather magicians, warriors, thieves, and bowmen of all sorts, those hungry for power, to join her army of darkness.

Her new recruits were not powerful men, they were nothing special. As normal humans, I could have taken on 5 of them at the same time, but as the darkness corrupted their hearts, and as Miriam's power granted them the power to steal other's life force, they turned into monsters. Powerful monsters, monsters never before seen in the whole land of Victoria nor Ossyria.

They lost all sense of camaraderie. Their only greed is for power, they know not who their friends were, for as one is wounded, a healthy one took the life force of him, granting him more power and toughness beyond human dreams.

Her army took over Victoria Island and ruled it for 50 years. Those 50 years were called, "The 50 years of darkness." The name given as there was no light allowed to enter the world. Miriam summoned a black orb that surrounded all of Victoria, and clouded Victoria with endless darkness. Without sunlight plants wilted and humans grew sick. But through these suffering and pain of the people, Miriam grew stronger.

In this war, my family fought valiantly, and through the 50 years. Grendel kept some alive, though he could not save all.

On the 50th year of her reign as high empress of Victoria, Grendel, Athena, The Dark Lord, and Dances With Barlog gathered all the surviving men. Most of them were thieves, for through their countless stealth skills have managed to sneak through enemy defenses and steal what they could. War brings out the best in people, and so, the usually petty thieves shared their food with everyone else. Through this act of maturity and friendship, near 1000 men survived. 600 of them were thieves, 200 were magicians, 50 were warriors, and the other 150 were bowmen.

The army marched past the wilted forest of Ellinia where they kept refuge, and destroyed everything menacing in their path. Countless dark warriors from Miriam's side confronted them, but were slain easily by the huge number of men.

In no time, the army of Victoria arrived at Sleepywood. A once quiet town in the deep jungles of the dungeon. An inn rested on one of the many humongous tree branches, the lights were out and the roof emanated darkness and chaos. Many bedraggled corpses laid on the ground. These were corpses of the dark warriors, killed by their own comrades.

No more life force in the dead bodies, their strength and life was sucked away, similar to the life of most of Victoria.

I know not much more after that, but that is what happened. Miriam was eventually killed, or so it was thought to be. One man, an assassin was the one who killed her. But it seems she's still alive." I finished my story, exhausted from the long period of talking. I wasn't used to it.

"That's… not good…" She replied uneasily.

"No… not good at all…" I replied back.

Sensing a new presence in the air I quickly switched into battle stance. An arrow flew whizzing through the air. I quickly attempted to dodge the arrow and bent to my right. Four more arrows surrounded by a blue aura shot quickly towards me. Using the normal flexibility of an assassin I bent back to dodge the four arrows. My arms touched the floor and the arrows barely missed me as one flew right in front of my eyes.

Something told me to move and I quickly rolled away as a large black sword whizzed through the air and created a large slash mark on the floor.

"Who are you; I have no wish to fight." I said evenly.

"We don't really care, we just want to kill all those who would oppose us," said the bowman.

The bowman had long blonde hair and his eyes showed that he was young. His Red Arund, a bow of great power, threatened to kill all who would oppose its' master glistened malevolently. The bow was dark red with two blade shaped edges to fight close range. The clothes he wore were those of elite bowmen. A red robe with beautiful designs and a white undergarment, the whole robe itself looked something like a toga.

"A red Tai. This child seems to be powerful." I thought to myself.

"What are your names?" I asked simply, almost implying that I did not even care that they tried to kill me.

"My name is Felix and his name is… well you can just call him 'Kenneth'," Said Felix, obviously changing his tone to create a certain atmosphere of annoyance.

"So, you guys are going to kill me?" I asked, angering them even more, though I do not know why I did so. Something inside was just telling me to do it.

Something flared up in Felix's eyes and he pulled out an arrow.

"Learn the ways of the bowman … INFERNO." Felix stringed the bow, and as he said this his eyes burned with flames and the arrow erupted into a volcanic heat.

The heat from the arrow quickly set the air around it ablaze. Felix released his fingers from the arrow and created a miniature torrent of flames.

The speed of the Niagara of flames caught me off guard. Doing the best I could to dodge the assault; I quickly jumped up after casting haste. Knowing the impossibility of dodging such an attack with simple jump, I summoned a small platform in the air with my mana and jumped off of it.

After successfully dodging the attack, I summoned the strength to my legs; I gyrated in the air and summoned the Assaulter technique.

Had I been being attacked, I would have seen a deadly yellow cyclone coming towards me with extreme speed and power. But I was not being attacked, rather I was attacking.

Spinning as I was I could not clearly see my target, but I could still make out his figure. But before I connected with him, a large black object attempted to sever my head off of my body.

There he stood. The fearsome warrior who called himself Kenneth. His sword, ready at his side to destroy all those who would oppose him.

"Double Teaming?" I asked them

"If that's what it takes to kill you." Kenneth coolly replied.

The one called Kenneth was a teen in his mid 19's, still a year older than me. His Doombringer evilly flashed in the sun. Its black steel momentarily flashed a bright red as it craves for my blood. A thought occurred to me …

"Aren't you two supposed to be enemies to each other? I mean you're a bowman, and you're a warrior … weird?" I asked them.

"Well you're with a mage girl aren't you? Weird?" Kenneth replied.

He was clearly mocking me. He took his sword up and readied himself in a battle stance.

"Enough talk, you will die!" Kenneth screamed this as he lunged with extreme speed towards me. He slashed his sword sideways expecting to kill me.

I jumped backwards and evaded the sword, and then I quickly summoned a copy of myself and made the situation fairer.

My doppelganger and I quickly took off in opposite directions and swiftly shot 2 stars.

Kenneth spun his sword quickly to create a defensive barrier. All of my stars were reflected by the shield, and my doppelganger did not have any luck with Felix either.

Felix has summoned a puppet and strangely, all of my doppelganger's shots were attracted to the puppet.

A white arrow came from behind me and hit Kenneth's barrier. The arrow continued to spin and soon pierced through the defense and pierced through Kenneth's shoulder.

"You forgot about me," Frey said, grinning.

"The girl stays out of this," Kenneth said.

"Why? Scared to be beaten by me?" Frey shot back, still grinning.

Kenneth lost it. He just lost all control. He lunged towards Frey and swung down, hard. I quickly summoned a humongous star and threw it between them. The sword struck the star and Frey was saved, I let out a breath of relief.

"Listen now, no need to get angry. Why don't you just tell us what you want before you try to kill us," I said, I commanded my doppelganger to come back inside my shadow.

"I guess that makes sense, but it doesn't really matter, because unless you share our cause, or stay out of our way. We will just kill you." Felix, the reasonable one said.

"Sure, after you tell me your story, I'll tell you mine," I replied back, grinning.

Author's Note: YAY! REVIEWS! Thank you to the people who reviewed! And now I'm happy again! –smile-

Shortie: Great, she's gonna be all weird again.

Kalypto: Yup!

Shortie: Wonderful…

Kalypto: Psst! People, have you noticed that Shortie…bears a remarkable resemblance…to…SCHYTH? –shock shock-

Audience: …Is that a trick question?

Shortie: …