well, here's chapter 24, and like the title says, thing start getting serious after this point, it's gonna be awesome!

Chapter 24: Things get serious

Alright, after E gave us the go-ahead our group left the Temple to the Dark Capital Ostrheinsburg, where Thanatos and the others awaited. Everyone was anxious as I was to get to the castle, plus this would work out for us, maybe we can see what Malgreed is planning and try to stop him there. Still, something kept bugging me, which was that dream I had last night…what the heck was that all about?

We soon saw the dark city and we all felt an evil aura surrounding it, man…did it get cold here or what?

"You guys feel that?" Joseph asked.

"Yeah, did it get colder here or what?" Zach asked.

"No…I…I sense a powerful evil force here…" Talim said as she shook. There was a loud thunder clap and we saw…a whole shitload of black birds flying from the roofs of the buildings.

"That's a lot of black birds…" Frankie said as we watched the birds fly off. I then looked and saw a silhouette of someone on one of the roofs before it disappeared.

"And I think I know what freaked them out…" I finished. We headed deeper into the city, now shivering from the evil feeling that's hanging in the air. "I got a bad feeling about this…" I muttered to myself as we made our way to the castle.

Thanatos watched Mark and his friends look at the black birds and he jumped down from the roof he was on. Finally the pawns were in place, and now the fun would truly begin. He opened a portal and went in it and soon fond Malgreed and the others once he stepped out.

"Mark and his friends are on the way," Thanatos said.

"Good, Ranvitchkus, you take on Frankie and Zach, Anubis will takes Joseph, and the rest of you will take your respective person," Malgreed told everyone. They nodded and headed out, leaving only him and Thanatos left.

"Can I end this charade here?" Thanatos asked.

"Yes…it's time they knew what they were messing with," Malgreed grinned.

Thanatos chuckled and sat on the throne, waiting for his opponent to come.

Mark's POV

We reached the bridge that lead to the castle, now I was nervous about the place, and the others were the same.

"Well…here we are…" I said.

"Yep…who wants to go in first?" Zach asked. We all pushed Zach in front of us as he grumbled and opened the door.

A minute passed and he poked his head out, "There's no one here," he said.

I cocked an eyebrow and went to the door, going into it, Zach was right, there was no one there. I heard the door shut close and turned around.

"Ah come on!" I yelled and tried to open the door. A fruitless few minutes later I gave up and walked deeper into the castle.

"Push!" Joseph yelled as he and the others tried to get to door open, but to no avail.

"Damn it! This sucks!" Frankie yelled.

"We gotta get in there!" Joseph said and banged his fist on the door. Suddenly a small portal appeared under Joseph's feet and he fell in, the same with Zach and Frankie and Sosuke.

"What the heck?" Mina asked aloud. Suddenly the villains who were with Malgreed appeared and they were teleported to the foyer with everyone.

"You!" Almost everyone yelled as they drew their weapons.

"So we meet again daughter, why are you following them?" Cervantes asked Ivy.

"Don't get me wrong, I want to destroy Soul edge and I'd gladly betray them, but I also will do anything to get rid of you," Ivy said as she charged at her "father", swinging Valentine at him.

Cassandra looked at Tira as the girl just grinned.

"Where's my sister?" Cassandra asked her.

"Oh her? Well I don't know but she'd probably be a new vessel for Soul Edge once Nightmare gets here," Tira said cheerfully before she frowned. "And that's bad news for you…" she said seriously and swung her weapon at Cassandra. She dodged it and charged at Tira, now pissed off, and sliced at her with her sword. Tira blocked it and saw another sword appear and blocked that too.

Cassandra looked and saw it was her sister, Sophitia.

"Sis! What are you doing here?" she asked her sister.

"For Soul Edge, but I couldn't let my own sister get hurt because of me," Sophitia said.

"So…Whaddya say we teach this girl a lesson?" Cassandra said.

"I thought you'd never ask," Sophitia said and charged at Tira with Cassandra.

Joseph soon fell out of a wall and onto a floor, and then saw he was in a hallway with some paintings and stuff on the walls. He looked around for anybody but saw no one…until Anubis appeared from the wall.

"You!" Joseph said as he summoned Brionac.

"Heh, I thought you'd do that," Anubis said.

"What's Malgreed planning?" Joseph asked.

"Won't tell you…but it involves one of your friends," Anubis told him.

"Let me guess: Mark?" Joseph asked.

"Yeah…and I really feel bad for what's about to befall him, believe me," Anubis said. Joseph cocked an eyebrow and looked at Anubis.

"Wait, what's gonna happen to him?" Joseph asked.

"All I can say is that Malgreed plan is gonna involve pushing Mark to his limits for something…that's all, he didn't tell em besides from that," Anubis shrugged.

"Hmm…no, can't get distracted…" Joseph mumbled.

"That's…" Anubis suddenly reappeared behind Joseph; "Is the correct answer…" he finished and prepared to stab Joseph. Joseph managed to summon an earth wall to stop the stab, when he turned to attack Anubis, he was gone.

"Where'd he-" Joseph got hit from the back before he could finish and skidded on the floor. Joseph tried to find where Anubis was hiding but all he saw was the hallway, then he saw Anubis stepping out of the shadows again. Joseph sent an earth wave at him, but Anubis dodged and went into the shadows again.

"God damn it! Hold still!" Joseph yelled as he ran at another portal as Anubis got out of it and prepared to attack.

Zach and Frankie landed hard on the ground, a little confused and disorientated at first, but managed to get up.

"What happened?" Frankie asked as he shook his head.

"Ranvitchkus happened," Zach said as the latter stood in front of them.

"Glad to see you're doing well…" Ranvitchkus said with a smirk as the two got up and prepared to fight him.

"No thanks to you, but now I can pay back from before!" Zach yelled and charged at Ranvitchkus with Frankie muttering a spell.

Sosuke walked through the hallways, sensing the dark powers that were emanating inside the place. He found the source of the darkness and opened it. He looked and saw that it was Malgreed before him; Sosuke felt rage burning inside him as his mind flashed to that day. His entire village was wiped out, his friends and family dead, and he blamed Malgreed for it.

Sosuke had been alone until he found Nightmare, but rather than kill him, Nightmare decided to let him accompany him, acquiring the pale skin tone from being so close to Soul Edge. He left Nightmare a while back and worked on the excavation where he met Joseph.

Sosuke looked at Malgreed and readied his sword to attack.

"It's been a while…I wanted to see your face…" Malgreed said.

"Malgreed…it's time I finished what I started years ago…you're mine!" Sosuke said as he charged at Malgreed, who readied his scythe to defend.

Mark's POV

I walked through the hallways now, sensing spikes in power around me. Guess my friends are fighting now…huh, what's that? I walked out of a hallway and discovered a large throne room with a huge chasm behind me. I saw the statues of a bunch of knights in front of the throne's steps in a line and saw Thanatos sitting on the throne.

I walked towards the knights as they stood aside, letting me pass.

"I've been waiting a long time for this Thanatos…" I told him.

"I know…me too…" Thanatos said as he got up from his throne.

"You've brought nothing but pain to my friends; it's time you were finished…" I told him.

"Heh…we'll see about that," Thanatos said and charged at me.

Yep, thos is one hell of a cliffhanger, stay tuned to see what happens next!