LORD OF DARKNESS
Fire Emblem © Nintendo
Chapter Twenty-Five: King of the Sky
- Unknown Location -
The scene shifts towards a new location. From the looks of it, we could see that it looked like the Gigan Rocks. However, there were no signs of ruins or temples to be seen. But at least there were tall mountains and a brightly blue sky that had very few clouds. And the sun looked lively as usual.
As a sudden breeze passed by, we could see a bright flash of light, revealing itself to be Larcen the Hedgehog. The dark blue hedgehog landed on the ground and looked around at his surroundings.
"Where the heck am I?" Larcen asked himself. "I don't recognize this place at all."
Larcen could see that there were tons of mountains standing tall, along with the blue sky that was looking beautiful than ever. The sun was warm, and everything looked peaceful around here. It was almost as if Larcen was suddenly dreaming that this wasn't real.
"I wonder where the Guardian of Wind is suppose to be?" Larcen asked out loud. "I don't see any signs of anyone here."
For a moment, he waited for something. Anything to happen, really. But after a few minutes of waiting, Larcen was already getting impatient. But maybe that was just because he didn't like to wait all that much.
"I guess standing here isn't going ot help me find this guaridan." Larcen said. "I may as well look around and see what I can find."
As Larcen was about to start walking, he suddenly heard a sound from above him. He looked up to see where that sound came from. He then noticed something that was flying in the sky. "Oh great, this is probably a bad dream and I'm already dead. Again."
What Larcen was referring to was vulture, who liked to stalk it's prey until it was dead. Fortunately, it was not a vulture Larcen was looking at. The flying figure came flew downwards until he could get a better view at what we were seeing. It was a large hawk brown hawk, with a blue feathered head, an orange beak, orange eyes, and a necklace that was carrying an ancient relic around it's string. The feathers on it's body weren't entirely brown. Like with his head, there also some signs of blue feather on it's lower wings. And it had yellow feet with sharp talons at the end.
Larcen watched as the large hawk flew around the dark blue hedgehog for a moment. It then flew towards the ground. But then something happened that took Larcen by surprise. The hawk began to transform into what looked like a large male human with large brown wings on it's back. The newly transformed human landed on it's feet as we could get a closer look at him. He was muscular by his appearance. It had yellow eyes, a red bandanna wrapped around it's head, black hair, pointed ears, and around it wore a necklace that had a few feathers attached to the string. It was wearing a long tattered green trench-coat that looked something royal. There were several signs of white bandage tape around it's hands up to it's elbows, and there was some wrapped around his lower muscular stomach. On it's midsection, we could a black belt that was wrapped around itself, along with a scabbard on it's front. We could see a red striped robe wrapped securely under it's belt, white leather pants, and black boots with two green leather patches that looked similar to it's trench coat.
The male figure looked down at Larcen as it crossed it's arms. "Ah, you must be the Dragon Lord of Wind. Good timing. I was thinking that you wouldn't show up." The male figure said with a smirk.
"Who...are you?" Larcen asked slowly.
"I am Tibarn. King of Phoenicis." He answered. "I am also known as one of these Element Guardians those Dragon Elders keep mentioning."
"Well, at least that's some good news to hear." Larcen said to himself.
"You know, I was expecting a beorc to be a Dragon Lord. I wasn't exactly expecting someone like you, though." Tibarn pointed out.
Larcen raised an eyebrow. "What's a beorc?"
"A beorc is what we refer towards humans. However, in the world I come from, it is an insult to call someone a human. Much like myself and others as to sub-human." Tibarn answered.
"Wait..." Larcen stopped him for second. "If your not a human, then what are you?"
"I'm known as a Laguz. There are three types in my world. Beasts, birds, and dragons. We might look the same, but once we change, we don't look alike at all." Tibarn paused for a moment before continuing. "But enough about that. I take it that your here because of your trial."
"Yeah. That's it." Larcen nodded.
"Then I think you should know about your necklace, seeing as how your mother gave it to you before passing away." Tibarn said.
Larcen's eyes perked up. "Wait, how did you know?"
"The Dragon Elders see everything that goes on in your world. They must've figured that you would be a potential Dragon Lord after seeing what you've been through your early life." Tibarn answered.
"But that was out of luck on how it happened." Larcen said. "So why do I need to take some trial?"
"You probably don't realize that you haven't really seen the hidden powers of your necklace." Tibarn replied. "You might already know the basics, but the the ones hidden have still yet to be seen."
"I see..." Larcen said, thinking about what the Dragon Elder said earlier about their trials. "So what do I need to do?"
"Well..." Tibarn was trying to think up of something. "How well can you fight?"
"Good enough, if you want a straight-forward answer." Larcen replied. He then had a thought in his head. "Wait, am I suppose to fight you?"
Tibarn laughed at that statement. "No, of course not. If that was the case, then you would lose. Trust me on that." He quickly regained his composure. "But in all seriousness, you will need to tap into the powers of the wind."
"And how do I do that?" Larcen asked.
"Well, to begin with, close your eyes and concentrate on your necklace." Tibarn instructed.
Larcen did just that, as the dark blue hedgehog closed his eyes and focused his mind on his necklace. While he did this, Tibarn spoke again.
"All right. Now focus in on where the direction of wind will come from." Tibarn said.
Larcen was slowly picking up on this, as he concentrated the wind. He heard nothing for a few moments. Then suddenly, he felt a swift breeze rush pass him. "I feel it. It's coming in."
"Good." Tibarn smirked. "Just keep at it."
Larcen continued to concentrate on his necklace as the wind began to surround him like a miniature tornado. All of the wind was coming around as his necklace started to glow brightly. Suddenly, wind energy started to form around his hands until a new set of attire replaced his white-gloves. These new replacements were long brown gauntlets with a symbol of a leaf on the forehands. The wind died down as Larcen opened his eyes and saw this. "What the? What are these?"
"Those are Wind Gauntlets." Tibarn answered. "The previous Dragon Lord of Wind used it to help in his battles long ago. They'll definetly come in handy."
"I won't deny that." Larcen stated. "But how do I use them?"
Tibarn looked around as if he were trying to find something. "Look at that tree over there."
Larcen turned to see what Tibarn was talking about. What the dark blue hedgehog was seeing is a very thin but thick tree that stood straightly without it bending in either direction. It was medium sized from the looks of it. "It looks kinda old."
"That's not the point." Tibarn said. "I want you to use your new abilities on that tree."
"You mean my gauntlets?" Larcen wondered.
"Yeah. Don't worry, it'll be easy." The Hawk King reassured him. "Concentrate your energy on your gauntlets."
Doing what he said, Larcen focused his mind on the Wind Gauntlets as he stared at the tree ahead of him. A couple of moments later, his gauntlets started to glow green thanks to his necklace. As they glowed at it's brightest, Tibarn noticed the gauntlets flashing.
"All right. Now call out the words Wind Blade and thrust your arms outwards." Tibarn told him.
"Wind Blade!" Larcen shouted, as he let out a yell and thrusted his arms forwards. That's when a green glowing disk flew straight towards the tree at windy speeds. The Wind Blade cut through the tree in half, as the top half of itself started to collapse to the ground, taking it down in the process.
Tibarn inspected the work made by Larcen with his eyes. "That wasn't too bad. For your first try, anyway."
"I guess..." Larcen said slowly as he looked at his gauntlets. "You got anything better I can try this out against?"
"You mean to tell me you want a challenge?" Tibarn questioned.
"Sure. I feel like getting a little exercise, anyway." Larcen replied.
"Well, if you want to test those things in battle, then I might have one thing you can fight." Tibarn said. "In fact, I can hear it coming right now."
Larcen tried to hear what Tibarn was hearing, but he couldn't hear anything. "I don't hear anything."
But what he didn't realize was that Tibarn's ears could hear things from across the world. "Are you sure? It's coming closer."
Larcen listened carefully to hear if anything was coming. Then suddenly, he heard a sound coming from above. "Wait! I hear something. It's coming from the sky."
"Look up." Tibarn pointed out.
Larcen turned his head upwards to see a flying creature in the sky. It looked like a large green gargoyle with brown scales underneath the wings. It's had red glowing eyes, white sharp teeth, and it carried a brown scythe as it's weapon. The green gargoyle flew downwards towards Larcen with it's scythe ready to attack The dark blue hedgehog's necklace glowed as he jumped out of the way at a fast rate, just as the scythe barely missed it's target.
Larcen took a sigh of relief and saw the gargoyle fly back upwards in the air. "That was close. It almost took me off guard."
"You were lucky to avoid that." Tibarn said. "But simply dodging attacks isn't going to help you."
"I'm aware of that." Larcen nodded, as he pulled out his dagger and got into a fighting stance.
The gargoyle decided to meet the challenge as it flew towards Larcen and landed on the ground. Once they were on the ground, the gargoyle swinged it's s scythe at Larcen, as the two clashed their weapons together. The gargoyle had the advantage in weapon-size difference, but Larcen didn't care about that. Larcen and the gargoyle continued to clashed weapons with each other, without showing any signs of weakening. Larcen jumped at him with his dagger, but the gargoyle defended itself with it's weapon as he swatted Larcen away. Larcen landed on his feet as he dashed towards the gargoyle, but the ancient monster roared as he swinged his scythe at Larcen horizontally. The dark blue hedgehog quickly jumped over the blade of the weapon and quickly slashed at the torso of the gargoyle, as the creature grunted in pain.
Larcen turned around to try that again, but the gargoyle used it's tail to whack Larcen off balance and send him flying across the ground a few feet. The gargoyle made hovered a few feet in mid-air and dashed towards Larcen at a decent speed. Larcen was back on his feet and was able to see this coming in time, as he the necklace glowed again and dashed above him with a high uppercut to the face, knocking the gargoyle into a small state of haziness.
While in mid-air, Larcen's gauntlets glowed brightly as he positioned them close to the gargoyle's face.
"Wind Blade!" Larcen shouted as he released a medium-sized green energy disk towards the creature. The attack was successful as the gargoyle screamed in pain while dropping to the ground.
Larcen landed on the ground to catch his breath for a moment. But before that could happen, Tibarn spoke up, whom was not too far away from where Larcen was at.
"Are you just going to stand there? Finish it off!" Tibarn told him.
"How?" Larcen asked.
"Use your Wind Vortex." Tibarn replied. "Combine your necklace's energy with the wind energy of the gauntlets."
Thinking about what he said, Larcen concentrated on his necklace with his mind. The suddenly, his necklace glowed brightly and his gauntlets glowed bright green. When they were shining at their brightest, Larcen's eyes snapped open at his widest.
"Wind Vortex!" Larcen shouted, as a green wind symbol seal, the same one on his gauntlets, glowed brightly from beneath the gargoyle. That's when a large amount of wind energy began to consume the gargoyle while shards of wind blades began to attack him from all over it's body. As that was going on, a large green hand came from within the seal grabbed the gargoyle, and dragged it down within the seal until it was completely gone. The seal slowly disappeared and the wind died down.
Larcen took a large sigh of relief and was managing to catch it's breath after performing that spell.
"That was fantastic." Tibarn said with a smirk. "For a moment, I thought you weren't going to pull it off."
"Well, things come when you least expect it." Larcen said.
"I won't argue with that." Tibarn stated before changing his expression. "Now that you have learned your wind abilities, I might as well go ahead and tell you about the previous Dragon Lord of Wind."
"Really?" Larcen wondered. "Who was it?"
"Seeker the Hedgehog. Also known as your ancestor." Tibarn added.
Larcen was surprised to hear this. "My...ancestor?"
"He lived in a place called Ancient Square Village. Which would also be known as Station Square in your world. He was known as the Windy Assassin. He would take on any high-paying job that involved anything important." Tibarn explained.
"What did he do before that?" Larcen asked.
"There was a mercenary group that, at the time, was trying to win back it's homeland after being overrun by an enemy invasion from a different country. They were contracted by a princess whom was pleading for help after she was overturned by the enemy nation. The mercenaries accepted it and went to seek more aid from other allies that would help them in their quest." Tibarn explained.
"OK, but what about Seeker?" Larcen asked.
"On one of their missions, the leader of the mercenary group was able to recruit Seeker, whom was also trying to steal some valuable treasure. An oddly enough, one of the treasures happened to have been the Wind Necklace that you are wearing."
"My necklace? Where did he find it?" Larcen asked.
"Inside an enemy fort, I believe." Tibarn replied. "He was also looking for the leader of the mercenary group, much to the leader's surprise. Seeker told him that he had some valuable information. But he would only give it up a certain amount of gold as payment."
"How much was the payment?" Larcen wondered.
"45,000." Tibarn replied.
"That much?" Larcen asked with a raised eyebrow.
"At the time, the mercenary leader didn't have that much gold on him. So instead, Seeker decided to travel with him and wait until he got what he needed." Tibarn said.
"What was this information that Seeker was holding?" Larcen asked.
"It was about the necklaces and the Lord of Darkness. During one of their missions, Seeker was facing an unexpected enemy soldier that was riding a wyvern, which is like a dragon. Seeker and the enemy faced off in a duel to the death, and Seeker was at a huge disadvantage. To himself, he looked like he wasn't going to survive the fight alive. But a strange twist of luck happened." Tibarn answered.
"Twist of luck?" Larcen wondered what he meant by that.
"Seeker was still carrying that green necklace that he had stolen sometime back." Tibarn pointed out. "The necklace activated it's wind powers and was able to take out the enemy soldier and it's wyvern at the same time. Seeker knew about the necklace's powers beforehand, so he wasn't at all surprised it happened. But what happened after that, actually did surprise him."
"What was it?" Larcen asked.
"The Dragon Elders appeared in front of him." Tibarn answered. "They told Seeker that they were examining Seeker's movements and said that he was one of the chosen Dragon Lords. They also mentioned that he, and six other Dragon Lords, would ban together and defeat the Lord of Darkness whenever the day it would awaken itself."
"Hmm..." Larcen was taking in on all the information he was given to him. "This Seeker person sounds kinda like me, with on how I was in that tough position ten years ago. And after that, I met Marisa for the first time."
Tibarn overheard the voice change when he mentioned Marisa's name. "She sounds like an important person to you."
"She is." Larcen said as he lowered his head a little. "She's my best friend."
That's when a smirk came to Tibarn's face. "Ah, I see..."
"See what?" Larcen asked.
"Your in love with her, aren't you?" Tibarn asked with his arms crossed. "You don't have to cover it. The best friend is only a cover-up. Right?"
Larcen turned his head away in shame. "Yeah. I admit it. I love Marisa, but I really shouldn't have those feelings for her. She's a human. I'm...a hedgehog. It's called inter-species dating. No matter how you look at it, it's wrong on all sides."
Tibarn was listening to this and he had something to say on that subject. "You know, there was a law back in my world, where a beorc and a laguz were never meant to fall in love with each other. It would be called a crime against the Goddess."
"The Goddess?" Larcen wondered.
"Ashera. She was the one who watched over our world." Tibarn replied. "A relationship between a beorc and laguz has happened before. Whenever the mother was pregnant with the laguz child, the laguz parent would lose his or her power. Take for example a hawk laguz; If a hawk laguz and a beorc were to have a relationship with each other and form a child, that hawk laguz would lose it's wings as well as the ability to shift into hawk form."
"Has a relationship like that caused trouble before?" Larcen questioned.
"It has. But it's a long story, so I would rather not go into it." Tibarn replied. "I can tell you that it has been broken a few times during the centuries passing in my world because of the law that was passed down by the Goddess."
"So it's never going to happen again?" Larcen asked.
Tibarn started to chuckle before breaking out into a laugh. Larcen was confused.
"What's so funny?" The dark blue hedgehog wondered.
Tibarn calmed himself down before speaking. "That law? It was all a lie."
"A...lie?" Larcen raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. For many centuries, almost everyone in my world was living a false law." Tibarn said. "I doubt anyone's actually believing that law anymore."
Larcen was in awe. That law about where beorc and laguz not meant to be together, and paying the price for producing a child. "So, from your story, your saying that I can tell Marisa about how I really feel about her?"
"That's up to you." Tibarn replied. "I'm only here to help you harness your powers to fight against the Lord of Darkness." That's when something popped into his head. "I also have something to give you."
Larcen looked to see Tibarn pulling something out of his pocket. The Hawk King revealed his hand, as he see a green Dragon Stone head. "All of these Dragon Lords are suppose to receive one of these after completing their trials."
Larcen took the Dragon Stone from Tibarn's hand and looked at it up close with his eyes. "What are these suppose to do?"
"You'll learn it soon enough." Tibarn replied. "Now I think you should get back."
That's when a strong gust of wind surrounded Larcen until a green glow emanated from the wind and magically dematerialized until Larcen was gone.
Tibarn looked up in the sky as his arms remained crossed. "I'm sure you'll live up to your ancestor, Dragon of Wind. I don't doubt it for a second." He then shifted into his Hawk form and flew into the sky.
As the potential Dragon Lord of Wind passes his trial, Larcen has a lot of things crossed on his mind. Will he be able to learn something from Tibarn's story? Can he tell Marisa how he really feels? And will Kera be able to pass her trial against the mysterious Guardian of Darkness? Find out on the next Lord of Darkness!
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